


Portal Stone: 1. Beginning | OnePiece FF

by Theblueshad0w



Series: Portal Stone saga [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Adventures, Different Worlds, Doctor Trafalgar D. Water Law, Drama, Fights, Finding a way to another world, Gen, OC, One Piece Universe, One Piece World / Real life, Portal - Freeform, Problems, Runa Cormac, Secrets, Sky D. Lucy, Trafalgar D. Water Law - Freeform, Trafalgar Law - Freeform, other world, trying to return home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:53:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 34,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28338765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theblueshad0w/pseuds/Theblueshad0w
Summary: Runa Cormac, a normal girl living a pretty normal life, until one day everything changes. What is the surgeon of death doing at her university and how did he even get here?? He tries to find his way back home and now Runa is confronted with an, technically, impossible task.What is the feared and famous pirate of a fictional world doing here and how is she supposed to bring him back into his world??Accompany Runa and her cold-hearted partner on their adventure. Will they be able to find a way into another world? And what role do a strange stone and an unknown island play in this story? Looks like this is the beginning of a fateful friendship.{One Piece FF, Trafalgar Law, OC}The Portal Stone | Chapter 1: Beginning
Series: Portal Stone saga [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075283





	1. Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story I posted on another account on Wattpad. If someone knows this story from the Wattpad Acc 0nepiecelaw, it's my account, so don't worry about someone stealing the story and reposting it or anything.
> 
> And nooooow enjoy it :D

My story starts on my 21st Birthday.

It's a peaceful day, I'm still sleeping in my bed cuddled up like a baby in blankets. It's so warm and comfy, I could spend my entire day like this, but of course, nobody wants to respect my wishes on my own birthday. Just when I turned around I hear someone slam my room door open and then hear three voices yell:

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUNA!!!!!" And with that three bodies jumping on my bed and crushing me. I gasp for air and then just shake my head laughing while pushing them off me. 

"Giiiirls, you're heavy!!" I hear all of them laugh and they get off me, laughing and smiling.

"Come on Runa. We know that you wouldn't stand up today if we don't drag you out of your bed. It's always the same on your birthday. Every other day you're immediately waking up and you're already full of energy but on your birthday you're always a lazy potato." Says Fiona and pokes me into the cheek. 

I look at her, pounding but also smiling. "Come on, I just want to sleep...." I drag the blanket over my head and close my eyes, but in the next second, someone pulls the blanket off me. I open my eyes again and see Sophie, holding my blanket in her hands and winking at me.

"Come on sleeping beauty. Wake up from your dreams and then come down, we're preparing breakfast." All three of them laugh while I just sit up and rub over my eyes. And when I look up again they are already gone. I take a deep breath and stretch out my arms. I stand up slowly and walk over to the curtains opening them. Yawning, I walk over to my closet and open it. I grab some random clothes and then leave my room heading to the bathroom. There I take a quick shower, change into some fresh clothes, and dump my old ones into a basket. I look into the mirror and start to brush my teeth only looking into my amethyst eyes. 

Hey, the name is Runa Cormac. And those chaotic girls from before are my best friends and roommates. We're all living together in our house and are all going to college. We already know each other for 13 years, we met when we transferred to middle school. We may be a crazy little group of friends but they are the best friends someone could ask for. Sometimes we piss each other off but we're still a family, so that's okay. 

After finishing brushing my teeth I dry my hair and then tie it to a ponytail. I look down at myself, black sweatpants and an oversized blue hoodie. Yeah, not really fashionable but I like it comfy and I don't care what others think about me, so that's alright. My friends tried for some years now to get me to wear something more formally but after some time they gave up. Yes, my stubborn self will never wear anything else. It already became my trademark. I chuckle quietly, fix my necklace quickly, and walk out of the bathroom back to my room. I get my backpack, my phone, and then walk back to the floor but now follow the stairs down. The stairway leads to the ground floor of our house, on this floor are our living room, kitchen, another bathroom, and two bedrooms. I walk to the end of the floor and lay down my backpack beside the entrance. I put my phone into the pocket of my hoodie and walk to our kitchen. There I can see my friends preparing breakfast and already setting the table. I sit down on my usual chair and see a hand placing a cup of hot and nice black coffee in front of me. I look to my side and smile at Cora thankful. I love coffee, especially black. I take a big sip of it and watch my friends preparing breakfast. 

First, there's Fiona. She has beautiful long, brown hair with matching brown eyes. She wears blue jeans with white socks and a white T-Shirt with a NASA print on it. She's our brain, a real genius but a little bit quiet and shy, but not around us, with us she started to be her normal self. You could also call her the squad's mom, it's not like she's the oldest, but she's just so rational, kind, and loving, also she's the only of us who can sew. She loves to go shopping, bake, and play badminton. She's studying to become a teacher.

Then there's Sophie. Sophie has long blonde hair with green eyes. She wears also a pair of blue jeans with white socks but with a pastel pink hoodie. She's incredibly creative and has good and stupid ideas. We both think really alike and are always up to stupid things. Her hobbies are horse riding and baking along with Fiona. She's studying architecture.

And then last, but not least, Cora. She's our 'hacker' and programmer. She has dark brown hair, always tied in a bun, and wears glasses. She's wearing black jeans shorts with a white t-shirt. She loves to program, swim and is the only one of us able to do finances and taxes and all that. She's also managing our incomes and expenses. She's studying IT.

A small smile appears on my lips. What would I do without them? They all sit down and we start to eat while they talk about the surprise they have for me. I just shake my head laughing and talking to them. I look at the clock and stand up. 

"Yeah, you guys are lucky. Why do my lessons start so early?"

They all shrug their shoulders and just look at me smirking. "No clue. But that leaves us more time to prepare everything. Now go princess, and greet your prince for us!" Says Sophie and I see Cora and Fiona holding their laughs back. I look at Sophie with a murderous expression.

"Oh, if I wouldn't have to go now you would be dead. I don't care about that stupid spoiled brat!"

I walk out of the kitchen to the entrance area and my friends are following me. I take my white sneakers out of the shoe cabinet and sit down.

"But he's for sure interested in you. Come on, why don't you give him a chance? He's crushing over you for years now." Says Fiona and the others nod in agreement. I sigh and put my shoes on.

"You know exactly that I don't like the way he behaves and especially not how he deals with money. He's just super spoiled and always gets everything he wants and is upset that he doesn't get me. It's not like I'm an object you can buy. But that's something he doesn't understand. "

I take a deep breath and pick up my backpack off the floor. I grab my keys from a dresser and look at my friends smiling. "But let's forget about the idiot. See you guys this afternoon. And if you dare to exaggerate because of my birthday I'm going to kill all of you, you understand?"

They all smile innocently and nod. I sigh exhausted and open the door smiling. "Bye!" I start to close the door and the last thing I hear from them is silent chuckles. I just shake my head and take my phone out, plug my earphones in, and hear some music on my way to my college.


	2. Surprise

On my way to my university, I walked through some crowded streets and watched people running around in a rush. While I walk calmly towards my college everybody else squeezes through the crowded sidewalks. A typical day in this city, I'm just glad I'm always counting in enough time to walk there, and don't have to worry about coming late.

Finally, I arrive at the university and look at it for a moment. It's a quite modern building with a nice campus. The building itself is white and has giant windows while the campus has a lot of plants in different shapes and colors. For a university, it's really a beautiful building. I start to make my way to the entrance and greet some of my friends on the way. Some of them graduate on my birthday and others have some small presents for me. I thank all of them and enter the building with my hands full of bags and gift boxes. I make my way to my first lesson when I hear an annoying voice behind me.

"Runa, my bunny!! I'm so happy to see you!!" 

I act like I didn't hear him and just continue to walk when he cuts off my way. I roll my eyes in annoyance and just look at him. Gosh, if I would have a free hand I would slap him away. 

"What do you want, Elias."

Elias. I know him already as long as my girls, but I always hated him. His running after me for years now, even though I always rejected him. I don't know if he's stupid or just stubborn. He even started to study at the same university, and just like me law. You should've seen my face when I found out about that. But he never stalked me or harassed me, so that's nothing I could call him out for, he's just acting like a huge idiot. 

"I got..." He takes a box out of his pocket and places it on his flat hand. Does he look at me with a...charming smile? I guess. "A little present for my sweetheart's 21st birthday." He places his second hand on the lit of the box. I look at it not really expecting something meaningful. He takes the lit off and my eyes wide immediately.

"The stone matches your beautiful eyes. Originally, I wanted to buy you a necklace, but I noticed you're always wearing the same one so I figured it must have a special meaning for you." He takes the bracelet out of the box and looks at me smiling. "May I?" He takes the presents from me and places them gently on the ground. He takes my hand and puts the bracelet on me. "I know that you hate me. I ask you for a second chance, I know I behaved like an idiot. But people can change, I can change. I thought long about this present for you and hope you like it."

I just look at him, speechless and not believing what he just said. I look at him for a while and then look on the ground, rubbing my neck awkwardly.

"Maybe I was a little harsh on you. You're right, everybody deserves a second chance." I look at the bracelet and then at him with a little smile. "Okay, Elias. I'll give you another chance. Don't fail me."

He looks at me, with a hopeful smile, sparkle in his eyes, and a little bit red on his cheeks. "Thank you, Runa! I'll give my best I promise!!"

We talk for a little longer when I look at my phone. "Oh, we should start going, our lessons start at any moment." He looks at his watch too and nods surprised. "Oh, you're right."

I bow down and want to pick up the gifts from the ground when he stops me. "Let me lend you a hand." He picks up all the presents for me. I just look embarrassed on the ground. I could barely hold them in my two arms and he carries them on one arm like they're nothing? I mean, I'm not that kind of girl who is impressed by that kind of thing or likes it when someone else does my stuff for me or carries it for me. And I only now noticed that he is kinda muscular. I mean, he's wearing a long sleeves shirt but still, I can see his trained arms under them. How did I never notice this before? I shake my head embarrassed. Why am I thinking this so suddenly, it sounds like I'm literally begging him to fuck me? I sigh frustrated over that thought and he looks at me with a questionable expression.

"You alright?"

"Huh? Eh, yeah sorry I'm fi-" We walk around a corner but I accidentally walk against someone. I step back immediately and hold my nose looking up to the person.

"I'm sorry Sir, are you alri-IIGHHT?!?!?" My eyes wide immediately when I look into two cold grey eyes. No, this can't be. I'm stepping back while staring into the face of the tall man in front of me. Elias looks at me shooked, then at the man, and then back to me.

"Runa, what's wrong? Do you know this man??"

I just keep staring at him and keep backing up. I stare at the faint shadows right under his grey, and the monotonous expression on his lips. Then I look at the short dark hair, leading to the sideburns and a small goatee. I also see two small earrings on each ear. I stare shocked at him and my glare wanders down on him. I see a bright, yellow hoodie with black sleeves and a black hood, there's also a familiar symbol printed on the front of the chest area in dark ink. He wears a pair of jeans with odd dots on both the knee and ankle areas. I noticed his hands and see the word D E T H tattooed on his fingers and a black cross on the back of both hands. 

"T-This can't be...t-this is impossible..." I keep backing away while he just stares at me with those cold eyes, silently. For a moment it's completely silent when he starts to walk towards me, my eyes just wide shocked but then I hear things falling on the ground and see someone standing between us.

"Hey, you! I don't know who you are or what you want but don't you dare to even touch her!"


	3. Explanation

Elias!!! He stepped between us!! Wait, what is that now, I feel like a helpless girl who has to be protected by a prince in shiny armor. Gosh, am I for real now following those prejudices? I shake my head, not the moment to think about that, he has to go!

"Elias, step away, you're no opponent to hi-!!"

The next moment I see Elias flying through the corridor into the next wall, his body slides the wall down and he lays on the ground unconscious. I just stare at him shocked when I notice a shadow falling on me. My eyes wide in an instant and I turn my head slowly only to see a yellow hoodie directly in front of my eyes. I swallow nervously and start to look up only to look into his cold grey eyes. I step back a little and just stare at him.

"T-This can't be, I must be still dreaming or I'm hallucinating..." 

When he reached out a hand to me I kinda freaked out and tried to run away. I mean I knew he would catch me, with or without his power, my physical condition is no match to his. And it would only things worse if I run, but I don't know, nothing here feels real so my nerves killed me. I wanted to yell for help, but he just grabbed me by arm and pressed his hand on my mouth. The next moment he lifted me on his shoulder and started to run away carrying me and holding my mouth shut. I need a moment to realize what is happening but as soon as my brain entered my head again I started to fight back as strong as I can. Seems like it doesn't really bother him since he's still running with me on his shoulder through the floors. At some point, I kinda don't have the strength anymore and just hang over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes. I'm trying to breathe, but it's pretty hard with his hand on my mouth so I decided to just bite into his hand as hard as I can. And now I'm biting into his hand and he didn't give me a reaction, didn't bother him at all. I try to think of something else when we arrive at a door leading outside the building into an alley with trash canisters. After the door closes behind us he just drops me. I fall on the ground and hit my head pretty hard on it. I hold it and sit up slowly when I feel a hand grabbing my neck and pulling me up by it. I gasp for air and immediately grab the hand on my neck while looking at him death scared and slowly turning blue. 

He presses me against a wall and just stares at me with a monotonous expression at me. For a moment it's quiet until he starts to talk. When he starts to I get goosebumps all over my body and chills are running down my back.

"Since you're the first person I met who seemed to know who I am you're going to answer me some questions and explain where I am. Dare to yell or run away and...I'm sure you know what will happen. Do you understand?"

I just look at him, not able to breathe, and nod slowly gasping for air. He looks into my eyes for a moment but then luckily lets go of my neck. I fall on my knees, coughing hard and breathing heavily. He just stares at me and then leans with his arms crossed to a wall behind him. After some time I calm down a bit and stand up with the help of the wall behind and gently touch my neck with my right hand. I look at him, still shocked. The whole choking thing right now felt too real to be a dream. 

But it just can't be. This is not possible.

Ok, calm down. First of all, I should probably explain the situation to him. I guess he's more confused than me, even if it doesn't seem like it. He has this chill and calm expression he always has. I stand up completely and we stand in front of each other looking into each other's eyes. 

"Trafalgar...Law."

I noticed his eyes twitch a little and he cocks his head. "So, you really know who I am huh? Then answer my questions, where am I."

I kinda hoped this was just a bad joke and everything would now blur out and I would wake up in my bed. 

No, this is real.

"You're...Trafalgar Law. Captain and doctor of the Heart Pirates...Supernova...also called...Surgeon of Death." I hold my head and just look at him thinking of a good explanation for this.

"Tell me something I don't know." He looks at me, unimpressed and waiting.

"I...I don't know how to explain to you...ehm...please just listen and try to understand alright?" I notice he's kinda surprised but then he just leans his head back and sighs. "Oi, just start already."

"Alright...to be honest, I don't know how all of this is possible. You can't be here, it's impossible, but still, you're standing right in front of me. Look, we're right now in my world. You somehow got from your world...into mine. So we're from two different worlds, but I still know about you and your world. That's because your life...is part of a story in this world. Everything you know, all the people and yourself were created by a man in this world to be part of a story. So, your world is yours, it's real for you but for me it's just a fictional story. You can see us as watchers from the outside, you can't see us but we're there and watching your adventures."

I finish my explanation and he just stares at me, quietly and still with the same expression as before. For some minute it's completely quiet until he breaks the silence with his voice, sounding kinda annoyed.

"And you suppose me to believe you this shit, huh?" he raises his hand, and his ankle cracks.

"Look, I know it sounds weird, I mean I don't know either what is going on here, but why should I lie to you and risk getting killed? You may notice I'm not a pirate, nor a marine or someone else strong, able to fight. It would be a death wish to lie to you."

It seems like he's following my logic since he lowered his hand again.

"Look..."


	4. Trust

"Look..." I take a deep breath and look at him. "Your world is a story in mine. And you probably know that in those stories are often flashbacks of things to get to know the characters better, right?"

He looks at me not understanding what I mean with this and nods. "Right."

I sigh and then look at him, kinda feels strange to confront him with this now but he has to believe me. And it will hurt too, that I know about all of this about him, but here goes nothing.

"Your full name is...Trafalgar D. Water Law."

His eyes wide in shock, but I just look to the side and continue to talk.

"You're the last survivor of the white city Flevance. You were able to heal the amber disease with your devil fruit, which you got from...Corazon, Donquixote Rocinante. He was a Marine Commander, working undercover and infiltrated his brother's pirate group in order to stop him. He died in order to save your life. His own big brother...Doflamingo killed him."

For a while, it's completely silent and only some distant voices are hearn. Just when I want to turn my head over to him, I feel the hard ground under me. He pinned me to the ground and holds my hands above my head and just stares at me with a threating and angry expression. He takes something of the ground and holds it to my throat. "How do you know so much!! What kind of devil fruit is this!!!"

I feel a slight pain in my throat and just look at him shocked, trying to not let my throat touch that thing he's holding. "N-No devil fruit! D-Don't you noticed anything strange here?? The guy before did he looked like he could've really hurt somebody??? Or don't some things here seem just strange to you??" 

He looks at me annoyed but seems to think about it, my chance. "I-I'm sure there are a lot of strange things for you, they seem strange because they don't exist in your world. Haven't you noticed, there are no marines, no pirates, no devil fruits nor weapons, nobody here is walking around with a katana or a gun! It's a friendly world in which people live together and NOT fight each other."

He looks at me for a moment but still isn't moving that thing from my throat. "Why should I believe you a thing. This could just be the work of a strange devil fruit. And Doflamingo could've told you all about me."

He won't believe me. What do I do now?

...

No, wait of course!!!

"I can prove it! I can prove everything I just said!!" I look into his eyes, I try to act determined and sure but I'm incredibly scared. "Please...you need to trust me for now. I want to help you. Give me a chance, if you feel like it's a trap or I'm about to do something harmful you're free to use your power or do whatever. But for now, I need your trust." 

He looks at me skeptically and moves his hand with this sharp object nearer to my throat. "Why shouldn't I just kill you now?"

"Because I'm ready to help you, and I understand your position. There could be more people out there who could recognize you, that's right. But not everybody would try to help you. So please, trust me for now. You want to find a way home, right?"

He looks at me for a while and seems to think about it. The next moment he lets go of my both arms and drops the sharp thing he held to my throat beside me. He goes off me and I just sit up slowly, glad I could convince him. I look to my side and see a glass shard with a little bit of blood on it. I slowly move one hand to my throat and feel a slight burn, I look at my hand and see the blood there. He just looks at me and rolls his eyes.

"Freaking out because of a bit blood? You see even more blood than that once a month."

My jaw drops and I just look at him, not believing what he just said. He looks at me unimpressed and turns away. I just sigh quietly and stand up, I grab a tissue out of my pocket and clean the wound a bit. "Follow me." 

I start to walk out of the alley and he follows me as I said. We leave the alley and arrive at a street next to the university. I start to head home with him following me. Some people are staring at us since Law is a little big bigger than an average man. And his clothes draw a lot of attention too. I should give him later something else. Now we're on our way to my house, my friends' lessons luckily started so they shouldn't be there anymore. But that means that I missed my lessons. I sigh quietly and notice those stares behind me. Looks like he's watching me closely, I should be careful with my movements, I'm not interested in triggering him and ending up dead. After a short walk and many people staring at us, we arrived at my house. I turn over to him.

"I'm now just taking my keys out of my pocket alright? No weapon, nothing."

He looks at me and I just accept that blank stare as a yes. I start to search my pockets for the keys and just when I found them I noticed that he created a room covering our whole house. It seems like he's scanning the house. Oh gosh, please don't let anybody see this. I unlock the door and enter the house, holding the door open for him. He comes in too and I close the door behind him. I just lay my things down and walk through the floor to the staircase. I hear his footsteps following me upstairs. I walk through the first floor over to my room and open the door. He walks in and closes the door again. While he looks around I walk over to my closet, open it and search for some boxes I store there.

Ah, here it is. Thank god, I still have them.


	5. Proof

I pull a large box out of the closet and swipe some dust off it. I take the lit off and look inside. There are all my One Piece mangas, I luckily kept them. 

I was a huge One Piece fan and loved it, but at some point, I stopped watching it, and yeah ... I just kinda lost track of it and my manga's ended up in this box. I'm pretty sure the whole story meanwhile is finished but since I haven't continued to watch it, I only know the story up to the beginning of Wano Kuni. I should still be careful about what I show him, he shouldn't find out a thing about the future. I look carefully over to him and look at his clothes. He wears the clothes he wore at the Sabaody Archipelago, only that his hat and sword are missing. I look at my mangas and take some out. 

"Ehm...quick question did you visit the Sabaody Archipelago once?"

I look at the mangas and scroll through some of them. I notice his glare in my back and then he answers me. 

"No. But we would've been headed there soon. Only three or four more islands I think."

I nod and then look at the scene in the manga. It's Law's Introduction and in the other manga is Law sitting in the human shop with his crew and showing Eustass Kid the finger. I think it would be fine if I show him just those two scenes. It should be enough to convince him. I take both mangas, close the box again and stand up holding them both in my hands. I turn over to Law and see him standing beside my desk and opening and closing my Laptop. Seems like it's confusing him, but he still has his room open so he's still cautious. I clear my throat and hand him both books.

"Here, look at this. Those are two books of the story in your world. The story is manly over another pirate but you also have an important role in this story and are part of it. Just look at those two pages."

He looks at the books skeptical and takes them from me. He looks at the pages of the two books and the next moment his eyes widen. For a while, it's completely silent while he just stares at the sides of the books.

"But...I wasn't...on the Sabaody Archipelago...yet..how...?" He looks down on himself and seems to compare his clothes with those in the picture. Then he looks at the back of his hand and compares it to. He looks at it for a while and then at me. 

"And? This never happened, could just be made up. I admit, this looks...really accurate but it doesn't prove a single thing."

I look at him for a moment, then walk over to the box again, open it, and search for something else. I take another manga out of it, stand up again and walk over to him. I look at it for a while and sigh silently. Chapter 767. I open it, scroll through it, and stop at some pages. I take the other two manga's from him and give him that one. 

Sorry, that'll be painful, but you won't believe me otherwise.

He just looks at the pages and at some point, he turned away from me and the room also disappeared. I walk to the box and put the two mangas from before back inside. I just sit there for a while and look at the other books when I see Law's hand beside my head holding the manga. I look up to him and he just looks at me with his normal monotone expression.

"Okay. I believe you." 

A relieved smile appears on my lips and I take the book from him. I put it back into the box and look back at him.

"I'm sorry about that. I hoped I could convince you without...having to you show you that."

He just turns away and sighs quietly. "It's alright. I found my peace with this."

No. No, he hasn't. I shake my head and sit down on my bed. I shouldn't confront him more with that. Now it's more important to think of a way back for him. I look at him and then notice his clothes. I stand up and walk over to the door. 

"Wait here for a moment, I'm going to bring you some new clothes."

He looks at me confused and then at his clothes. "What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Oh, nothing really, they are just a little bit striking. And if my friends see you and recognize you, they would freak out. So, it would be better if we hide who you are alright? And that means no powers alright? Don't use your powers and DON'T hurt people alright? "

Seems like he's understanding, he just nods and sits down on the chair in front of my desk, again opening the laptop and looking at it. I walk out of the room and close the door behind me, taking a deep breath. 

Oh man, how do I always end up in this kind of trouble?

I continue to walk through the corridor and take the stairs downstairs. I hate to lie to my friends, but it would be better if they don't know. They would just panic and this would end in a disaster. I stop by an old door and look it for a moment. I didn't enter this room for some time now. I take a deep breath and lay a hand on the handle, pushing it down and opening the door. 

I look around and feel immediately so sad and uncomfortable. Everything still looks the same, only that some boxes are now standing in the corner. The big bed, the writing desk, the closet, the wardrobe, and the computer, everything is in its place for quite some time now. A little bit faltering and nervous I walk over to the faded closet. I open it and look through the old clothes of my dad. I look through the clothing and find a white shirt and a black pair of jeans that could fit Law. I take the clothes out of the closet and close it again. I walk over to the door, look one more time over the room. I notice the pair of glasses on the table and take them. I leave the room and close the door behind me. I look at the door for a second but then just make my way back to my room.

I gave Law the clothes and brought him to the bathroom, he wasn't really dedicated to it but he still changed. Now we're both here, he's sitting on my couch, wearing the clothes I gave him, and I sit on my bed holding a little pillow and fidging it. Just when I wanted to ask him something I hear a lot of footsteps running up the stairs and then a lot of people barging into my room. They all stop there and just stare at me for a moment. Law and I look at them and then they just start to yell:

"RUNA!!!!!!"


	6. Confrontation

My three friends jump me and all talk/yell things messed up. I just look at them confused, push them off me and sigh.

"Guys, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong!? We come to our university only for Elias to tell us that there was a man who knocked him out!! And when he woke up again you were gone and nobody saw you OR could reach you on your phone!!! Do you know how fucking scared we were?!!? Runa, you can't scare us like that!!! You know that we'll get worried, you know what happened three years ago!"

Oh. Right. Kinda...forgot about that. The whole thing with Law was after all pretty shocking. Just when I want to say something I notice Elias, standing in the doorway with a bandaid around his head staring at Law. Oh no, not good.

"It was him." My friends all look over to Elias while he's pointing at the man sitting with his arms crossed on my couch. My friends all look at him confused and then lean over to me to whisper into my ear.

"Runa, who's that?/Did he really knocked Elias out?/Is he your boyfriend??"

Fiona, Cora, and I look at Sophie with a judging expression and she shrugs. "What? I mean, it could be don't you think?"

Fiona and Cora both hit Sophie gently while I just sigh and hold my head. Oh man, how am I supposed to explain this now? I stand up and walk over to the couch Law is sitting on. 

"This is...L-Leo! Yes, Leo...Aaaaaaa...len. Yes, Allen! Leo Allen. He's an old friend I haven't seen for quite some time now. And he wanted to visit, you know for my birthday but I kinda forgot and I didn't recognize him immediately so I was kinda shooked, you know." I look over to Elias and rub my neck, acting embarrassed. Please believe me. Elias just stands in the doorway with his arms crossed and then walks over to me.

"Fine, but how do you explain this" he points at his head "Or, this!!" He grabs me by my chin and pushes it up. I just look at him shooked, that was kinda harsh and painful. But before I can even say something I hear my friends all gasping.

"Runa, what is that??? How did you cut yourself there so deeply??"

"We have to bring you to the hospital!!!"

Oh, the cut. I forgot completely. I try to push Elias away from me but he just holds my chin with one hand and with his other hand my arm. 

"And not only that. You have some dark markings on your neck." He looks at me with a serious expression. "Like someone chocked you."

"Elias, let me go!! Let me go!!!"

"No, I won't! Tell us the fuck what happened!!!"

I just try to free myself from him but he keeps holding me. I already want to kick him in the nuts when Law stands up and grabs Elias's hands setting me free. He looks down on Elias with a monotonous expression.

"She told you to fuck off, got it?"

He pushes Elias away and I just look at Law surprised. I look over to my friend who are all looking at me worried while Law and Elias just stare at each other. 

"Look, I don't quite remember either how I cut myself there and La-Leo helped me. The cut isn't that deep, but I kinda freaked out and tried to stop the bleeding with pressure. That's probably how those markings got there, alright? I'm fine. And as you can see Leo isn't weaponed or anything and I am completely fine. Okay?" 

They all look at me, still worried but then just nod. "Alright. We're just glad you are fine, we were so worried." I smile slightly and rub over my head. "Sorry for making you worry...we'll talk later but now.." I turn around to Law and Elias, I look at Elias and point out of my room.

"Leave my house. Right now."

He looks at me shocked. "What!? Quit the act Runa, he hurt you and me!! You should call the police and get that man arrested!!"

I start to walk over to him. "Didn't I just explained that this cut was an accident? And you quit your jealousy and stop trying to blame Leo. You probably just tripped and are now trying to blame it on Leo. I wanted to give you another chance but that from before is unacceptable. Leave my house, right now or I'm going to call the cops on you!! And you..." I rip the bracelet off my arm and throw it on the ground in front of him. "Can keep this. Now leave."

He stares at me, speechless and unbelieving what is happening. He clinches his hands into fists, looks at Leo, and then at me. He picks up the bracelet off the ground and then walks out without another word. I just take a deep breath after I hear the front door opening and closing. I look at my friends and smile slightly. "Sorry that you had to see this. I don't know what he told you, but Leo didn't hurt me. And the cut isn't so bad, a bandage should do the trick. Alright?"

They look at me for a moment and then nod. "I mean, we believe you Runa. We're just sorry since..."

"Since we kinda helped Elias with all of this. Like the present and we told him that the way he acts sucks and...after all he's still the same ass. But that he would go so far to even hurt you..."

I smile slightly and shake it off. "Na, I'm fine don't worry. And you don't have to, really guys. And after all, we now know for sure that we should our distance to him right?" I wink at them and they just smile and nod too. "Right. Now..." They look to Leo and smile at him. "Sorry that you got dragged into this Leo. It's nice to meet you. Since we already missed our lessons we can just stay here and spend some time. You two can catch up on everything while we prepare something to eat, alright?" They look at Law and he just looks at them nods. The three of them smile widely and leave the room closing the door behind them. Law looks after them and then turns to me but I just walk over to my bed and fall forward on my bed. I grab a pillow and groan into it quietly.

"I'm such a horrible persoooooon...."


	7. Stone

Law sits down on the couch again and crosses his arms. "I'm sorry. You had to tell your friends quite a lie."

I sit up and press the pillow to me. "Na, it's ok. I just had to lie about you and about the cut and Elias's injury. And Elias...he's after all still a jerk. I mean you saw that he wouldn't let me go. Thank you for stepping in." He just shakes his head. "You're trying to help me, then I should at least help you too." He stands up and walks out. I look at him confused and he's coming back after some time with a first aid kit. "Your friends gave me this." I look at him surprised and he sits down beside me and opens it. He starts to treat my throat while I just look at him. "Now that we're finally alone, we can start. I wanted to ask you about what you did before you got into this world." 

He seems to be somehow distracted, he's just staring at...my neck? "Law? Hey, Law?"

"Mh?" He shakes his head and cleans my cut. "It was like this..."

*Flashback*

One Piece World

On a small island on the grandline

Before Law went to the other world

(Law's PoV)

Right now, I'm walking through a street on an island. It is a relatively small island with some stores and bars. Here aren't many people, but those who do pass by staring at me disgusted and angry. Pirates aren't really welcome here, but I don't really care. I'm going towards a book store and enter it. The vendor just wants to greet a potential customer, until he recognizes me.

"Trafalgar Law!! Leave my store immediately!!! You scum of the seas!!"

I just look to the vendor with my typical smirk and walk further into the store.

"Do people greet their customers like that nowadays? Stay calm, I just want to buy a book and then I'll leave again."

I look at the covers of the books while the vendor looks at me angrily.

"Are you kidding?? Since when are pirates paying for anything?! You just steal everything and then burn one's store down!! And since when are pirates are interested in books!?! Are you even listening?? GET OUT!!"

Completely ignoring him I look at the books. My glare stop at a certain book. It's completely black with not heading. Slowly I take the book out of the shelf and open the first page.

The story of a lost island

Tropica

That's written on it.

//Tropica? Never heard of it.//

With one hand I swipe over the side and look at the two bleached symbols under the title and then at the note on the bottom.

//The 7th out of 10 books. Interesting...//

I close the book again, keep it in my hand, and continue to search. Now I finally found the book I've been searching for now for a long time, a special book about the medicine of burnings. With both books in my hand, I walk over to the register and the vendor just looks at me angrily with his arms crossed.

"Both together cost 1000 Berry."

I take out a little sack with coins, throw it on the table and turn around to the entry of the shop. I stop at the door and turn around a bit to him.

"Keep the rest. Not every pirate is the same. We are only criminals because the 'law' a corrupted government created says so. Some of us may kill and steal, but each and every one of us still has some personals interest, don't you think? And I like books." I touch the charred wood of the door. "I'll go now. After all, I'm just scum who travels over the sea." I leave the shop.

The vendor just looks surprised after me and then opens the little sack. His eyes wide in shock when he sees what's inside of it. In the sack are well over 1000 Berry. 

"Why..."

Are the last word I hear from him before I'm completely out of range. With the books in my hand, I follow a way to the center of the city. There's a bench in front of a fountain on which I sit down. I place the book over burnings beside me, my sword too, and take the black Tropica book. I open it again and read the second page of the book.

In this book, the story of the island Tropica is immortalized. All information on the island was hidden from the government. Therefore the world doesn't know of the existence of this doomed island. Tropica extinct through the government.   
But the fate of this island shall never be forgotten.

I just look at the handwritten words.

//Again, an island destroyed...again by the world government.//

Curious I scroll to the next page. On it are some main and geographical facts explained. Just when I want to scroll to the next page something falls out of the book. A little stone now lays on my lap. I pick it up and look at it. It has a light blue color and an unregular structure and form. I look at it questionably.

//Why is there a stone in the book? Maybe there's an explanation in the book.//

While holding the stone I want to scroll to the next page when a bullet flies past my hand and leaves a little graze wound on my hand. With a cold gaze, I look into the direction the bullet came from and see there around 200 marine soldiers.

"Surgeon of death, captain of the heart pirates, Trafalgar Law, surrender without a fight!! You are surrounded!" Tells the leader of the group.

I put the stone in my pocket and place the book on the other one on the bench. I take my sword which leans at the bench and look at the marine soldiers with a murderous smirk.

"You really don't care about your lives, don't you? Fools. Room."

I lift one hand and create my typical room over the place, surrounding the soldiers. In a fast move, I pull my sword out of its scabbard and swing it through the air. The soldiers are cut into little pieces and fly around in the air. With a hand movement, I stick the pieces arbitrarily together to create any kind of strange creatures. Sighing I put my sword back and look down at the misery of soldiers.

"Remember to rather not mess with me."

After I took both of my books from the bench I made my way back to my subway. On the way, I take out the stone from my pocket and look at it again.

//Never saw a stone like this one before. Maybe an ore from Tropica?//

I turn the stone around in my hand and look at it from every side. From the little graze on my hand flows a little bit of blood down my hand. The blood flows down my finger and then touches the stone. Just when I wanted to wipe the blood away the stone started to light up white and blend me. I dropped everything and my hat fell off my head too. After that, I lost consciousness and woke up in a different place.

Flashback end


	8. Plan

*In Runa's World*

Attentive I listened to his telling. After he finished I just closed my eyes and think through it.

"A stone...and the island Tropica? Never heard of it..."

//Maybe it's going to appear somewhere in the future of One Piece. But, why would Law appear here? If he would, there couldn't be a future version of him. I don't get it. Anyways, it's good that there's probably just one stone.//

Completely lost in my thoughts I didn't even notice how he finished treating my cut and now waves with one hand in front of my eyes.

"Hey, you hear me?"

Surprised I look at him and shake fast my head.

"Eh, yeah sorry I just thought about this." I gently touch my throat while he packs up the first aid kit. He closes it and sighs quietly while crossing his arms. "Anyways, when I woke up I was laying on the ground without my things nor the stone. Then I walked into the next building and met some people but nobody seemed to know me. Then I met you."

"Mh... think that the stone, after your blood touched it, teleported you here. You said you never saw a stone like that one before right?"

"Right. There was also written that there are more books. That could mean that there are also more stones."

I stare at him shocked. My hands clench into a pillow, sweat forms on my forehead. Law looks at me with a questionable expression.

"M-More stones... and more books...? H-How many...?"

Law thinks shortly and grabs his chin.

"Oh yeah, 10."

He looks back at me and sees me, lowering my head and just staring at my hands with big eyes.

"10 stones.." Scared I look at my trembling hands and when I feel a hand on my shoulder I look up and look into his eyes.

"You alright?"

I sigh quietly and stand up holding my head. "This is bad. We are lucky that you were the one who got here. When some other pirates, marine, or just someone strong and dangerous would come here, my world would be doomed! Even without devil fruits, the people in your world are in a physical average, people here couldn't even withstand! This world would be destroyed and conquered in record time! Thousands, millions of people would die!! That would be...the end of my world..."

I just walk through my room monologing to myself while Law just sits on my bed and watches me. After some time he sighs annoyed, takes the glasses off, and grabs his nose.

"First of all, calm down. If you keep talking so loud your friends will hear. Second, I'm going to ignore the fact that you called me weak, but I won't forget it. And last, if we find a way for me back and I would start to look for those stones would you feel better?"

I look at him surprised and then place my hands on my hips. "First, fine. Second, I didn't call you weak, you're just one of the few people in your world who has the power to destroy everything but don't do it cause you are smart and rational. And last...you would?"

He shrugs with his shoulders and puts the glasses back on. "It's not like it will be so hard to find some blue stones. And if we really can find a for me back, I owe you something. And I wouldn't like to know that this world is in danger of perishing."

I just look at him and nod while stroking through my hair.

"We'll just need to find a way back for me. Then I'll collect the other stones."

While taking a deep breath I look up to him and nod. "Alright, thank you. And about your way back. It could be that those stones exist in my world. If the people of Tropica were able to visit my world it could be that they brought some of the stones with them."

"The stone was light blue. It could be ore or a gem. If it is a gem it had a rather irregular shape."

"Mh...can't think of a stone on the spot, but we research tomorrow a bit. And if we find similar stones we're going to get all of them and try them through. Luckily I got no lessons tomorrow."

He looks at me confused. "Lessons?"

"Oh yeah, you don't have that in your school. In our world, we have a education system. You go as a child to the kindergarten. Then you visit some schools and learn many things. First I wanted to study medicine but since I have quite some shaky hands I couldn't be able to help anybody." I say while rubbing my neck and laughing awkwardly.

"Medicine? You have to go through all of that to become a doctor?"

"Of course, you know in this world everything depends on education. Without it, you wouldn't come far. And to become a doctor you have to visit a college for another, 8 years? I don't know. But now that I think about it, I'm glad I don't study medicine. I wouldn't like to lose so much time in college. Even though it was my dream, especially after I started to watch One Piece and saw you." I just look dreamy into the air while he smiles sly.

"So so, after you saw me? Do I have a little fan here?~"

Immediately I look at him shocked and my head turns red. "W-What!? N-No!!! I-I was just-!!"

"Mh? Then why are you so red?"

He bows down to me and looks at me smirking. I just stare embarrassed on the ground and shake my head. "Arghhh, just shut u-" I look at him and see that he seems to focus on something thoughtfully. I look at him confused while he comes even closer and makes me turn even redder. He lifts one hand and touches my necklace.

"I already noticed before...I saw those things before...exactly those two"

I look at him shocked and then at my necklace. "They are just some simple symbols, it could be that you're just mistaking them with something else. The one just has the shape of an anchor and the other is just ... a star?"

He let go of my necklace and stands straight again  
He let go of my necklace and stands straight again. "I mean I know the shape of an anchor but I'm pretty sure I saw exactly that star symbol in combination with an anchor somewhere else too. Certainly, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure."

He keeps looking at my necklace and then just crosses his arms. "Even though they seem familiar I can't tell from where I know them...but I saw them recently."

I hold my necklace by its chain up and look at the two pendants. I'm wearing this necklace for my whole life now. My parents probably gave me it once and since they're...gone, I'm wearing it the whole time.

I just shake my head and look at it Law. "I think that's enough for today. Let's go downstairs and eat something, I'm pretty sure my friends would love to find out more about you." I walk over to the door and look at him. "Just try to think about some things when they ask you something, but miss out on everything about the other world, pirates and your powers. I'll help you out."

Law nods and I open the door and walk our, him following me. We both walk downstairs and already see my friends, sitting together, whispering and chuckling like teenagers.

Oh boy, those girls.


	9. Sleep

After some hours of my friends interrogating me and 'Leo' aka Law, it eventually got the evening and we all decided to go to sleep, especially my friends since they have otherwise than me lessons on the next day. I asked if Law could stay for some days and just answered with a wide smirk and nodded. 

Sometimes I wonder why we're still friends. 

And then I remember that I'm just as crazy at them.

Law and I both enter my room and I close the door behind us. I walk over to my closet and open it. 

"Glad this went well, it doesn't seem like they noticed anything." I take out a blanket and a pillow and look at Law. He took the glasses off and places them on my desk. He looks over to me. 

"I remember something from the conversation earlier with this Elias guy. Today is your birthday?"

I walk over to the couch and throw the blanket and pillow on it. I bow down and pull a certain part of the couch, it's luckily extendable, so he can sleep on it.

"Oh, yeah kinda already forgot it. Gotta admit today was quite shocking so it's only natural to think about something else." I laugh quietly and prepare the couch.

"Well Happy Birthday. And sorry for those death threats and almost killing you. I'm sure you didn't really imagine your birthday like this."

I look over to him and just smile. "Na, it's alright. For me, my birthday is just a date, kicking in my ass and telling me that I'm fucking old." I start to laugh and when I look at him I see a little smirk on his lips.

"Then we share the same opinion referring birthdays." I just smile at him and place the pillow and blanket on the couch. I walk over to my closet again, take out some comfy shorts and an oversized t-shirt, and look at him.

"I'll be right back." He nods and I walk out of the room and towards the bathroom. There I get changed, brush my teeth, and just look at myself in the mirror. What a day. I still can't believe what happened today. That's a birthday I will never forget. I walk back to my room and tie my hair into a messy bun on the way. When I walk in I see Law already laying on the couch with his shirt off. I can feel like my blood pumps into my head and I just turn the light off before he could see it. In the dark, I walk over to my bed and slowly lay down on it.

"Tomorrow we'll research on the stone. But you should rest now, good night Law."

"Good night, Runa-ya." 

"Wait, I already told you my name?"

"No, you didn't. But everybody here called you Runa, so I figured that would be your name."

"Oh right." I look at the dark ceiling for a moment. "But I would still like to introduce myself. My name is Runa Cormac."

I hear a silent huff. "Nice to meet you Runa-ya."

And then we turned silent, we can only hear the sound of the city outside. It took me a bit longer than usual to fall asleep. If I already needed so long to fall asleep I don't even want to know how Law feels. He's in a completely different world. I'm sure he misses his friends. 

At some point, my thoughts about all of this drifted away and a familiar dream appeared instead of them.

*Dream*

<<15 years ago>>

Runa, 6 years old. Evening, inside their family car on their way home.

"Mommy, mommy!!" I yell on the backseat of the car and lean forward.

"What's wrong dear?" asks my mom on the driving seat and looks at me in the rearview mirror. 

"When are we home??"

She laughs quietly and looks back at the street. "Soon dear. Just 20 more minutes and we'll be home,"

"Yes, and then we'll have a giaaaant pizza because monster daddy is huuuungry roaaar!!" says my dad on the passenger seat and leans back to me gesturing like a monster and acting like he's about to bite me.

I just laugh loudly and try to move away. "Nooo! Not me monster daddy!!!"

We joke around and we both laugh happily when it suddenly turns really bright inside the car. It's so bright I can't even keep my eyes open. I hear my parents scream something, then a loud crash and suddenly everything is dark again.

After some time I wake up due to some loud noises. They sound like sirens. And also a lot of voices, all unfamiliar. And I also smell something. It smells like something is burning. And like a gas station. 

Slowly I open my eyes again but just when I want to take a deep breath something in my throat feels so scratchy and awful. I immediately have to cough and I can hardly get any air. I sit up and start to feel pain in my skin. Feels like it's burning. It's so painful and I'm so scared, tears form in my eyes and roll down my cheeks. I start to look around but everything is blurry, I can only see schemes of cars, people but there's also something bright and shiny. I keep looking around but I can't see them. Where are they?

"M-Mo--mmy..? D-Da...ddy?!" My voice sounds so quiet and smoky. It hurts so much to talk. And, no response. Where are they?

"M-Mooommy??!? Daaaddy!! W-Where ar-e you??!" More tears roll down my cheeks and my whole body starts to shake and tremble. It hurts to move, it hurts to breathe and speak, but I don't care, I only want to see them. Just when I want to stand up and scream after them again the scheme of a person appears before me. The person stands right in front of the bright blurry spot from before so I can't see it anymore. I look at the person, tears constantly roll down my cheeks only to drop down from my chin. The Person is really big but seems to kneel down in front of me to look at me. I can't really see them, I only see the scheme of a smile.

"Hey Kid, you're awake! I'm glad that you're alright. Don't worry some pretty good paramedics will take care of you, they're professionals in taking care of kids like you." He comes a little closer and whispers. "I heard they have a lot of candy for brave kids like you."

I look at him, still crying strong and sobbing. "W-Where are...m-mommy and...dad-dy..." I cough silently and he lays a hand gently over my head and strokes over it. 

"Ah your parents, don't worry some of my friends are looking for them. I'm sure they'll be fine, they are professionals too you know. Now we should take care of you first alright?" he wipes my tears away and I just look at him, trying to somehow see his face.

"W-What...your name..?"

"My name? You can call me Kai. And yours?" He helps me to lay down again and I just look at him, still not seeing his face.

"R-Runa.."

"Runa. A beautiful name. Nice to meet you Runa. I promise you that everything will be alright."

That was everything I can remember from that day. It's not much, but the things I can remember are carved into my mind. A car accident shifted my world upside down.

It was a horrible day.

The day I lost my parents.


	10. Morning

I sit up fast, panting and sweating. My heart pounds so fast, it feels like it's about to break out of my chest. I hold my head with one hand and with the other I support myself on my bed. 

"Nightmare? You alright?"

My head pulls up shocked and looks around, only to see Law sitting on the couch, reading one of my books. He wears the clothes I gave him again, looks like he's already awake for some time. I look at him surprised, swipe over my sweaty forehead, and smile slightly. 

"Yeah, just a little nightmare. And yes, I'm alright, thank you for asking." I push my blanket away and stand up. "Did you sleep well?"

He looks back into the book. "Not really."

I walk over to my closet, open it, and take some clothes out of it. "Sorry to hear that."

He waves it off and turns to the next page. "It's okay. After all, I was never a good sleeper."

I nod and walk out of my room over to the bathroom. I make myself ready and then walk with Law downstairs. We enter the kitchen and already see a setup table for us. 

"Looks like my friends already prepared breakfast for us." We both sit down and start to eat. I pour myself some coffee and look at him. "Want some?" he nods and I also pour him some nice hot coffee in a cup. I take a sip of mine.

"After we finished let's first start to look at what kind of blue stones we'll find online. Then we'll go to the city and try to find some of them and get them." I sigh quietly and lean back swinging the cup in my hand. "Oh man, this is going to be expensive. My poor bank account."

I noticed his confused expression. "What's the problem? Why don't we just steal the stones?"

"It's not so easy. I mean, it's against the law to steal things..."

He looks at me with a raised eyebrow and I just sigh quietly. "Okay, okay it's not normal here to violate the law. I mean there are of course people who do and they are punished, therefore. You may don't understand but it's not so easy in this world to dodge the law. And I would never steal something, that's against my own morals. I'm still studying to become a lawyer alright?"

He just shrugs his shoulders and takes another sip of his coffee. "With my power, we could get them without being seen."

"No powers Law! I'll just pay for them and we'll be fine. Who knows, maybe we're lucky and we'll find the stone instantly." 

He just finishes the cup and shrugs. "If you say so." I stand up, take the dishes, and place them in the dishwasher. He seems to look at the dishwasher questionable but I just drag him into the living room and take my phone out. I unlock it and start to search for the stones. He looks at my phone for a moment.

"What's that?" 

"Mh?" He points at my phone. "Oh, that's a phone. It's like a...Den Den Mushi but only with a monitor." He looks at it for a moment, but still seems confused. "I see...interesting."

I laugh quietly and we start to research the gems. It takes us some time but after some time we made up a list with the names which could be the stone we're searching for. 

"Alright, so we have Sodalite, Blue Agate, Lapis Lazuli, and Turquoise. That should be enough for now, but it would take an eternity to find all of them." I look at the list for a while and sigh. "Guess we don't have another choice." 

I go grab my back with my wallet and throw my phone inside it. We walk out and I lock the door before throwing my keys into my back too.

"Let's go. And don't forget Law, no powers, and no attention. I'm pretty sure we'll already have enough attention since you're so big, we don't need more or people who start to freak out."

He puts his hands in his pockets and huffs quietly. "Yeah, yeah I got it."

"Good." We both make our way to the city, hoping nobody would recognize Law. I mean, he is wearing the clothes and the glasses I gave him but the tattoos could expose him. Let's just hope nobody will notice.


	11. Search

We both walk through a crowded street on our way to a jewelry shop. It's probably the only way to get that kind of gems, and I can't think of another way. So we gotta hope that we'll find them in one shop.

I walk next to Law and already noticed that some people look over at us. I mean, I would too. Law stands out pretty much like there's a crowd and the people are all pretty average size and then there's a guy, almost 2 meters big in the middle of the crowd. I noticed that Law looks around with a serious expression?

"You alright?" 

I must have pulled him out of something because he now looks at me irritated. "Did you say something?"

"I asked if you're alright. You seemed distracted, what are you thinking about?"

We walk over a crosswalk and then through some shopping streets. It's still pretty crowded, but that's nothing new.

"I just...felt like someone was staring at us."

"Believe, me everybody is staring at us. Don't worry, I'm sure it's just some random person. And besides, we're here not at 'your place', here aren't any people trying to 'get you'."

He looks around one more time and then just puts his hands into his pockets while turning forwards. "Right."

We continue to walk through the city, but it seems like he can't get rid of the feeling that someone is watching us. It's probably nothing, just the typical pirate sense that something is wrong. I walk over to a jewelry store and look at him. 

"Let's try this." I look through the store window before we both enter the store and I walk over to the counter. Law stays at the store windows and just looks out. I wait at the counter for the seller to notice me and look around. There are tons of rings, bracelets, and necklaces. Pretty sure they have here something with the gems we need. The seller notices me and walks over to me, I greet him with a smile and take the note out of my pocket.

"Good morning, do you have here any jewelry with those gems attached to them? Doesn't matter what they are or how they look. But the cheapest would be good." I give him the note and he looks at it for a moment and then checks some kind of book.

"We only got accessory with Lapis Lazuli but nothing with the other."

He gives me the note back and I nod. "That's fine, bring me something." He nods and walks away. He comes back with a ring and after paying I walk over to Law and show him the ring smiling. "We got the first one. Only three other left."

He looks at me and nods, we both walk out when I hear a voice I know pretty good.

"Oh Runa, my bunny, happy to see you." Quietly sighing I turn around and see Elias leaning against a wall and looking at me winking. I roll my eyes and cross my arms looking at him. 

"I thought I told you to stay away from me."

He walks over to me and wants to take my hand but I just step away. "Oh come on Runa, I know that you didn't mean it like that. Dump that moron over there and spent some time with me, your prince!"

Law and I both look at him with one eyebrow raised. For a short time, we're just staring at him, but then we both turn around at the same time and start to walk away. 

"I think the next shop we should try is nearby, we'll check some shops but if we don't find everything we'll try again tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan."

We just walk away and Elias stares at us shocked and angry. We hear him yelling something to us but due to the crowd, we're walking through. At some point, we can't hear him anymore and I just sigh exhausted while crossing my arms. 

"You don't know how glad I am that he showed his true colors so early. Before I was really able to give him another chance. Funny, he already messed up after some hours."

Law looks at me and we continue to walk down the street. "I should've beaten the shit out of him."

I laugh quietly and look at him. "I kinda would've liked to see that, but no he's just an idiot. That would just be unnecessary violence."

He looks at me with a raised eyebrow and sighs. "I have the feeling that everybody here is a coward."

"Heeeeey." I punch him gently and just laugh while we arrive at the next shop. Just when we're about to enter Law stops before the entrance and starts to look around.

"Go without me. I'll wait here." I look at him a little bit confused, but then just shrug it off and walk inside. 

After a short talk with the seller, I walk out again and just take a deep breath. "No luck. Let's go to the next one."

He looks around one more time and then nods quietly, following me to the next shop.

<>

There stands a person, wearing normal clothes, with a cap covering his face. He leans against a wall, with his arms crossed, and just watches the scene at the store. When both start to leave he leaves the alley and starts to follow them through the crowd.

//This guy seems to feel that something is off...I have to be more careful.//

A wide smirk appears on the person's face and seems like he's about to burst out in loud laughter.

//Calm down. Don't make a scene. Just a little longer...I have to wait for the right moment...AND SHE'LL BE MINE!!!//

A quiet chuckle leaves his mouth as he keeps following the two on their way.


	12. Past

For the next hours, we walk through the city, trying to find those gems but it's harder than we would've thought. We were only able to find the Lapis Lazuli at the beginning and in the end, we got some earrings with two Blue Agate attached to them.

Right now we're on our way home, at some point I started to feel kinda uncomfortable and we decided it would be better to go back. Law always seemed to look for something and that kinda freaked me out. I'm just a little paranoid, after all, it's not normal to walk through the city with a fictional character, who isn't so fictional and somehow landed here.

Anyways, we finally arrive at my house, I unlock the door and we both enter. I close it again and take my shoes off, just when I want to look at him I notice that he's gone.

"Law?" I look confused around and walk into the living room only to see him standing at a window, opening the curtain in front of it a gap, and peeking out. I walk over to him and look at him with a questionable expression. He looks at me, closes the curtain, and just shakes his head. 

"Guess it's just a bad habit to always check on my surroundings. It's probably nothing." He walks away and I just stay there, look at the window and peek outside. I look over the steer and the cars I can see but there's nothing suspicious. I sigh relieved and close the curtain again, it's nothing I'm just nervous that's all. I walk over to Law who sat down on the couch in our living room and I give him the two gems. I make my way to our kitchen, I get a little knife and a tissue and walk back to the living room passing both things to Law.

"I'll guess we'll try the two we have. You know what to do." 

Law nods and cuts with the knife a little bit into his finger till a small blood drop drips out of his wound. He takes the Lapis Lazuli ring and presses the blood on the stone. We wait for a moment but nothing happens. He passes the ring to me and I wipe the blood off it. He does the same with one of the earrings but nothing happens. He wipes the blood off his finger and sighs.

"Would have been too easy if this has worked." He leans back and I look at the two accessories and then at him with a cheering smile. "Hey, it's okay. We'll just have to find the other two and then try them. And if they don't work we'll find other stones. It's too early to give up." I take out the note and strike out Lapis Lazuli and Blue Agate. The next two stones are Sodalite and Turquoise. "We'll try to find them tomorrow but in another part of the city."

Law nods and leans back with his arms crossed and seems to think about something.

"You know, since we saw this Elias today I remembered something. Yesterday when we were in your room and your friends busted in they seemed incredibly upset."

I look at him surprised. "Of course they would, we are friends after all. I would also act like that if one of them would disappear so suddenly."

"That's not what I mean. One of them said something like 'you know what happened three years ago' and I wondered if that was somehow connected to the nightmare you had."

When he started to talk I turned my head away and just took a deep breath. Of course, he would've noticed. Guess I can't hide anything from him. I turn my head forwards and just stare at the wall across me. For a while I remain silent while he just looks at me, waiting for an answer.

"Not exactly. My nightmare was about the accident I had 15 years ago. During that accident, I was saved by a police officer, but my parents died. Since I only had my parents and no other relatives they wanted to send me to an orphanage, but the police officer who saved me decided to adopt me. His name was Kai White, I stayed with him and he raised me. Sadly, three years ago in the police station, he worked in, one criminal broke free. He knocked out one policeman and took their gun. He took m- a hostage and threatened their life with the gun. Kai stood in front of the criminal and the hostage and tried to calm the criminal down in order to save the hostage. It was very intense and all the other policemen in the station couldn't do anything. At some point, the criminal started to lose his shit, and just when he was about to shoot the hostage Kai stepped in between and protected the hostage. The hostage was saved and the criminal wanted to run away but was overwhelmed by other policemen. Kai was hit with a bullet...he didn't make it."

Law listens to me silently while I just told him about my life story. Normally I wouldn't have told people about this. My friends and some other people like the police station he worked in know. I kinda had the feeling that I HAD to tell Law. After all, I know everything about his life, I feel like he should also know about mine. We stay quiet for some time while I just play around with the gems in my hand.

"I'm sorry that I asked. It must still be painful."

"It is, but it's alright. Don't worry. We all bear some kind of pain don't we?" I pulled my legs to me, lay my head on them, and just look at him smiling. "After he died, I moved here with my friends. It's my parent's house, but when they died it got mine." We hear the front door open and I jump up when we hear my three friends talking. I walk out of the room to them but didn't notice that Law stayed there and just watched me leaving the room.

-

I watched her leave the room. I just stay there and close my eyes. 

She told me a lot, but she didn't tell me everything. Looks like she's still hiding something.

I wonder what it is. I shouldn't ask her about it anymore. Three years is still quite fresh.

I sigh quietly and then stand up, joining the four chaotic girls.


	13. Shopping

My friends prepared something to eat and we all sat together, ate and talked until it was evening. I'm sitting in my room, playing around with the two gems while Law is in the bathroom. I look at them and just think about a way to find the last two. I place both gems on my desk at the same moment someone knocks at the door.

"Come in." The door opens and Law comes in with a towel around his shoulder. I look at him confused while he closes the door behind him again.

"Why did you knock?"

He sits down on his couch bed and looks at me. "You're a girl after all. Or would you rather want me to just burst in your room?"

I look at hin embarrassed and turn a little bit red. I just shake my head while walking over to my bed and laying down on it. We just lay on our beds, trying to sleep, I'm still thinking about the whole stone situation when I remember something. I stand up slowly and tiptoe over to my desk. I gently grab my laptop and look over to Law. He's just laying there silently with his eyes closed. Then I tiptoe over to my door, open it a gap, squeeze me through the small gap outside, and then close the door again. I sit down on the floor beside my door room and open my laptop. I start to look through online stores if there are any things with those gems attached to them. It takes me some hours but I finally was able to find a bracelet with a Sodalite gem. I immediately ordered it, it would arrive here in about 3 to 4 days. I got the Sodalite, but I wasn't lucky with the Turquoise. Maybe we'll find one tomorrow in the city, but I'll continue to search for one. 

*The next morning*

I slowly open my eyes again. I must've fallen asleep. I rub over my eyes and yawn quietly when I notice that I'm not sitting on the ground beside my room door anymore, but that I'm now laying in my bed. I look around, my laptop stands in its normal place, on my desk. I stand up slowly and walk over to it, I open it and search for the order I did. It's still there, so I was really sitting outside. When did I get here? I look to the couch and notice that Law isn't here anymore. I decide to get ready and then walk downstairs. I hear some voices and when I look into the kitchen I see my friends and Law sitting together at the table and already breakfast. Sophie is the first one to notice me, she stands up and ruffles through my hair.

"Finally awake sleeping beauty?" everybody laughs while I just look at them confused.

"Why did you slept on the ground Runa? You have a nice bed in your room, you know?" says Fiona trying to hold her laughter back. I look at them skeptically and Sophie and I walk over to the table. She sits down on her chair between Fiona and Cora and I sit down on the empty chair between Law and Fiona.

"I was...working on something and didn't want to wake up La-Leo."

"Then at least sit down in the living room, you can get sick if you sleep on the ground. You're lucky that Leo carried you into your bed to let you sleep more, we would've woken you up without hesitation." They all look at me smirking while I just look surprised at Law. He just takes a sip of his cup of coffee and doesn't even notice my surprised expression. We all talk for some time and then finish our food. I put the plates and everything away and my friends look at me.

"So we'll come with you to the city!! It's Saturday after all!!" says Cora and the other two nods. I look at them and then at Law, I scratch my neck and look at them, smiling nervously.

"Yeah so...ehm..."

"Alright, so it means shopping!!!~" the three look at each other smirking, I want to say something but the next moment they are already gone. I just sigh exhausted and hold my head with one hand. 

"I could really need your help here. And why did you tell them that we're going to the city at all?" I look over to Law and see him standing up, he puts down the cup in the sink and looks at me. 

"Why? Just let them come with us. Can't be so horrible. And don't you think we won't draw so much attention if we're in a group?" he looks at me with a smirk and I just look at him with a raised eyebrow. 

"What did they tell you?" he shrugs with this shoulders and walks off. "Nothing."

I look at him kinda nervous and kinda scared. I know my friends, they are monsters. My monsters, but still.

"N-No wait, tell me!!!" I walk after him, hoping they didn't tell him too much crap.

<>

The person sits in the car and is just watching the house until the front door opens and the targets leave the house along with other persons. 

"It doesn't look good. Now they're more. I told you we should've done this yesterday."

The person turns around in the car and looks to a second person, sitting on the backseat with some glasses and a hood on. He has his arms crossed, turns his head a little bit to the side, and glares out of the window to the five persons in front of the house.

"Don't worry, in a bigger group it won't stand out too much when one person disappears, especially when they are in a crowded street. Wait up a good moment and then use this, it'll make it easier to take her with you."

He throws something at the person on the driving seat. He catches it, looks at it, and then looks back to the person on the backseat. 

"And what are you going to do?" 

"Nothing. I have to...deal with something else. But I'll get some people who'll take care....of him, so you'll have it even easier. So don't mess this up."


	14. Antiques

So now my friends, Law and I are walking through the city. They talk about clothes and everything they want to buy since the last shopping tour was some years ago. We're students, we can't afford always new things, but sometimes it's okay. I mean I could afford it, but I'm not the kind of person who likes to spend a lot of money. 

Three years ago before Kai died I had a part-time job to pay college fees, Kai always insisted to pay them for me, but I was already so thankful for everything he already did for me so I wanted to work for myself and pay for it.

After he died I wasn't able to work, I got fired. Right now I'm living off Kai's and my parent's money. Isn't really something to be proud of but... I just don't have to strength to work again.

Anyway, my friends are still talking about clothes, but I'm not really interested in their conversation. Clothes and fashion are just not something for me. Even if Law wasn't here and we would have to find a way for home, I wouldn't have listened to them.

Sounds rude, I know, but my friends used to it so they don't get mad at me.

They're entering some shops and Law and I just follow them around, holding their clothes or telling them if the outfit looks good. At some point Law and I didn't walk into the shops with them anymore, we stayed outside and waited, even though they weren't really happy with this.

"And I thought you were exhausting." Says Law, with his arms, crossed leaning against a wall. I'm standing beside him and I'm only stretching my arms a bit.

"I know, when it comes to shopping they are on fire." I think for a bit about what he just said, then I put my arms on my hips and look at him pointing. "Heeeeey, what's that's supposed to mean, I'm not exhausting!"

He looks at me with a little smirk and clicks with his tongues. "You sure?"

I cross my arms and just look at him pointing. "Yes." He chuckles quietly. I look at him surprised for a moment but then just smile. I started to look around and then noticed an antique shop. I look at it for a moment and then back at Law.

"Hey, check that out." I hint with a head movement over to the shop and he looks there. I start to walk towards it and he follows me. We both enter the shop and look around. Normally you would expect such a place to be super dusty and messy, but here it's super clean and all the antiques are sorted. We walk over to the counter and the antique dealer walks over to us. He has grey hair and a grey beard, he wears a checkered shirt with a tie. He's probably in his 80s or 90s. You know, I like old people, but goddamn he looks really pissed and grumpy.

"What do you want youngsters," says he with a rough and annoying voice. Geeze, he doesn't only look grumpy, he is grumpy.

"Hello, it may sound strange but do you have anything with a Turquoise gem on it? Doesn't matter how big it is."

He looks through a list, then looks at Law for a moment and then at me. Suddenly his eyes wide, like he saw something important and shocking. He looks back at the list and then puts it down, shaking his head. 

"No, sadly we don't have anything, but can I help you with something else?"

"You know actually...do you have any blue gems here? Except a Blue Agate, Sodalite, and Lapis Lazuli?"

When I said that his eyes wide once again and he walks to the back off his shop. Law and I exchange glances and we look at each other, visibly confused. Some seconds ago he was so annoyed but now he's...shocked or surprised? A short time later he comes back with a little box. He places it on the counter, facing us and opens it. In the box lays a little blue gem. We look at it surprised and he seems somehow nervous now.

"E-Ehm this is an Aquamarine gemstone."

I look at Law and notice his expression while staring at the stone. Seems like this stone is pretty similar to the one which got him here, it's a rare sight to see Law so shocked and speechless. I look back to the antique dealer.

"How much for that stone?"

"O-Oh nonono take it as a gift! I-I just have one question about your uhm...necklace." I look at him surprised and look at my necklace and then back to him. "It's a really beautiful necklace...I-I would like to know where I can buy it, my daughter would love it."

"Oh." I look at my necklace for a while and then back to him. "I don't know." I scratch the back of my head awkwardly. "You know, I don't know myself from where I got this necklace. I'm just wearing it already my whole life. I'm sorry."

He looks at me for a short while but then he seems to kinda calm down. A smile appears on his face and he closes the box and gives it to me.

"I see." 

I take the box from him and just look at him a little bit uncertain.

"Are you sure, you want to give us this? I'm sure it costs a lot, let me at least pay half of the price."

He shakes his index finger along with his head. "No, no it's alright. I insist you take it."

I look at the box for a moment, then back to him and smile while bowing down a bit. "Alright, I accept your present. Thank you very much."

He smiles also. "Your welcome young lady."

We start to head out and just before I'm out of the door I look over to him and weave him. "I hope you find another present for your daughter."

He looks at me smiling and weaves back. "I'm sure I will p- young lady."

That's the last thing I hear from him before we're outside the store. I look at the box for a moment and then at Law.

"Looks like we're lucky. Wonder why he changed so suddenly."

Law just looks at the box in my hands, he then looks away and shrugs with his shoulders. "Who knows, maybe he liked how you looked."

I look at him with pinched eyes and punch him gently into the side. "Shut up." We both laugh quietly and make our way back to the store my friends are shopping in.


	15. Danger

We wait in front of the shop for my friends to finish their shopping tour. Law leans once again against a wall and I stand beside him and look around. 

"Hey Law?" He looks at me while I just watch the people hush through the crowded shopping street. "Don't you miss your friends? Your crew? You're here for some days now, I'm sure you miss them a lot and that you worry about them."

I turn my head towards him and we both just look into the eyes of each other until he turns his head away and brushes with one hand through his hair. "I trust my crew, they'll be perfectly fine on their own. And if this goes good I'll be back soon. Why the sudden question?"

I look at him for a moment, then close my eyes and smile. "No certain reason." He looks at me, still a little skeptical but then just shrugs it off and crosses his arms behind his head. 

"Sometimes I would really like to know what is going on in your head."

I laugh quietly and wink at him. "Trust me, I don't know either."

Just when I finish my sentence my friends leave the shop with some shopping bags. 

"Alright, next store!!!" says Sophie exited, and the other two nod and walk over to Law. He looks at them with a raised eyebrow and Cora and Fiona just take each one of his arms and start to drag him along with them.

"Come on Leo, we want to style you up!!!" says Cora, and Fiona just nods in agreement. They both try to pull him along but he just stands there like a tree. A smirk appears on Sophie's face and she starts to push Law forward. 

"Come on, come on, this will be fun!!"

Now all three of them push Law forward and I'm trying my best to hold back my laughter. Oh poor Law, but I gotta admit, glad they took him and not me. They are already pretty far ahead and it's hard to keep them in sight, luckily Law is standing out of the mass. 

Just when I want to make my way through the crowd I notice something shocking and scary. Someone stands right behind me, I can feel their breath in my neck. Not good. I kick with my leg back and luckily hit them, I immediately start to run, but I'm not getting far. The person grabs my arm and pulls me back. I try with all my strength to free my arm and somehow to run away, but the person is a lot stronger than me. I look around, panicking. We're in the middle of a crowd, why isn't anybody noticing something! Come on, you have to see me!!! 

All the people around me don't pay attention, they're all just minding their own business and hush through the crowd. They aren't even noticing what is happening here. In a distance, I see my friends still pulling Law away. I open my mouth, ready to scream as loud as possible when I see a hand reaching from behind me in front of me and pressing something on my mouth and nose, it's a tissue with a strong scent. My eyes wide in shock and I try with my free hand to move the hand, covering my mouth and nose, away. I try to breathe as little as possible, but since I'm kinda panicking and panting, that's not really possible. At some point, my eyelids feel so heavy, I can't hold them open anymore. My whole body feels like it's falling asleep, I tried to free myself, but now it feels like I lost all my strength, I'm just laying weakly in the grip of this person behind me. I try to keep my eyes open, but the last things I perceive are my friends in the distance, slowly blurring away and a creepy, silent laugh in my right ear before my eyes close and everything turns dark. 

*Law's PoV*

Runa-ya's friends just keep dragging me along them and they're talking something like 'Pretty face and good body but no fashion style' or something like that. I just sigh exhausted but let them drag me along with them. Wouldn't be smart to screw up with the friends of the girl who's helping me. She let me stay at her place, does everything to find those stones, and pays them. Even after I threatened her life and the whole chaos with this guy. Speaking of her, where is she?

I start to turn back but she isn't behind us. I try to look around but due to the many people, I can't really see her. "Wait a moment you three, I think we lost Runa-ya."

"Mh?" All three stop and turn around, looking for Runa but she isn't there. "You're right. Let's go back to the shop, she's probably still there. Maybe she met someone and is now captured in a talk."

The other two nod and the four of us start to walk back to the store we were before. When we arrive there we start to look around, but we can't see Runa anywhere.

"Mhh strange..." says Cora and takes her phone out while Sophie und Fiona check the store. She unlocks it, types in something, and then holds the phone to her ear. "I'm sure she's just lost. She's not often in this part of the city so she could get lost."

We wait for a moment when we start to hear a melody between the loud murmur of the crowd. We both look around when I find the source of this melody. I kneel down and check under a bench and there is it. I pick the thing up and notice that it's one of those phones, but this one has a cracked screen. I look at the screen and see a number and some strange symbols. Cora walks up to me.

"Strange, she isn't taking her phoooone...." She looks at the phone in my hands for a moment, takes it, and looks at it for a while. Right at that moment Sophie and Fiona walk out of the store again and are standing next to us.

"She isn't in the store." They notice the phone Cora is holding and seem to look at it surprised. "Woah, wait isn't that Runa's phone???" says Fiona shocked, Sophie takes the phone and nods.

"Yeah, that's her's...where did you found it?"

I point at the bench. "It laid under there. We tried to call her and it started to ring."

All three of them just look at the phone and then at each other. "Guys I'm worried. Let's go the police station." Before I can say something they already start to go, I watch them leave and look around one more time before following them. I haven't a good feeling either. Yesterday, the whole day I felt like someone was watching us, today too and now she's gone. However, this feeling is still there.

What the fuck is going on here?


	16. Brother

Together we arrive at the police station, we enter it and the girls are walking straight to a policeman who seems to know them.

"Oh, girls, what's up? What are you doing here?"

They talk for a moment while I try to understand why they should know that policeman. Aren't they something like the marine, why should they be befriended? I think for a moment and then remember that Runa's adoptive father was a...police officer? That means that her friends were pretty close to this Kai too and that means also to his comrades. 

They talk for a short moment, the policeman shows them in a direction and the three of them nod. He then notices me and looks at me with a questionable expression.

"And who is this young man?"

The three girls take my arm and drag me once again with them while Fiona answers the question of the man. "Leo Allen, an old childhood friend from Runa. He's visiting us."

The man looks behind us and watches us go inside the station. After we walk past some doors and corridors we stop in front of a door. While Cora nocks at the door I notice a sign beside the door with a name written on it. Just when I want to read it, someone inside the room says 'Come in' and the three girls enter. I follow them inside and close the door behind us.

The room looks pretty messy, there are cabinets with some documents in them, but they are all open and the documents are pretty messed up. In the middle of the room in front of a window are standing two desks. One desk looks like the rest of the room, messy and stuffed, while the other desk is organized and clean. At the messy desk sits a person in an office chair, he seemed to work on something until we came in. I look at him for a moment, he has grey hair and green eyes. He wears a white shirt with rolled-up sleeves and black pants. On his right arm is a tattoo, kinda similar to the tattoo on my chest, but only that he has some words written on it. When he sees us coming in he starts to smile.

"Ah, Cora, Fiona and Sophie, nice to see you. Oh and a new face. Who's the young man behind you?"

"That's Leo Allen. A childhood friend of Runa, he's visiting us."

He looks at me for a moment. "Mhh...she never mentioned that name, neither a childhood friend..." A warm smile appears on his face, he stands up and reaches out one hand towards me.

"Nice to meet you, Leo. You can call me Zane." 

I look at his hand, then at him, and shake his hand. "Nice to meet you too, Zane."

He looks at me smiling and then at the three girls. "So, what's wrong? Why are you here?" The girls look at the ground for a moment, not sure what to say. Sophie takes a deep breath and takes out the phone we found before out of her pocket. 

"We were with Runa at the city shopping...she suddenly disappeared. We tried to call her but her phone only laid on the ground. Zane, we are worried, what if she's in danger!!!"

In the middle of her explanation his eyes wide, sweat broke out on his forehead and he stared at us, shocked and speechless.

"R-Runa...is missing...?"

The three girls look at Zane sad and worried and nod slowly. He walks over to a wall and leans against it, he takes a deep breath and covers his face with one hand. 

"Runa...Runa...my little angel.."

I look at him with a raised eyebrow. Who is he, her adoptive father is dead. Even if he knows her, he wouldn't react like that. Or he is closer to her, but then who is he?

He takes a deep breath looks up at us. He walks up to his desk, grabs his jacket, and some other things, and then walks out. "We're going to find her. Follow me."

He walks out of the room and we just start to follow him. Zane starts to talk with some people, some people started to research information, check her last phone signal and security cameras. We were also questioned about her if she had any enemies or where the exact place and time were we last saw her. And Zane along with some other people started to hold a conference in a separate room. And now we're in the waiting room, waiting. I'm sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee in my hands while the other three walk around in the room, worrying and driving themselves crazy. 

"Arghhh, when is this conference over??? How come that you can just sit there and drink your coffee, Leo?? Aren't you worried??"

I look at them, then back at my cup and drink a sip. "It won't help Runa if we start to freak out and lose our shit. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want you to freak out because of her. Come on, try to calm down."

They look at each other and take a deep breath to calm down. After some time they really calmed down.

"There's something I wanted to ask, who's this Zane? In what kind of relationship does he stand with Runa? I mean he reacted quite emotional to this."

All three of them now look at me, surprised and with big eyes.

"Wait you don't know?"

"I wouldn't ask if I would know."

Fiona sits down on the couch beside me and sighs, she looks at me. "You know about Kai?"

I nod and she leans back on the couch. "Zane and Kai were brothers, to be more precise identical twins. Kai may adopt her but Zane was just as much as a father to Runa as Kai. So after his death.."

"Zane felt guilty." continues Sophie, she's leaning against a wall and she looks up to the ceiling. "He was also there that day. He felt like he failed to protect his brother, he's blaming himself. And concerning Runa..."

"He was scared to hurt her. He said he would see the pain in her eyes when she looks at him. They were identical twins, after all, they looked exactly the same. And that he couldn't bear that pain, the pain Runa has. We told him that Runa is like one of the only people who can tell them apart and that she knows that he isn't Kai. He wouldn't listen."

"And Runa knew about the guilt Zane feels, and she felt like she would remind Zane of his dead brother. So she decided to move out, and give Zane the times he needs to recover. They haven't seen each other for three years now. She waits for him to be ready and see her. It's complicated between them, Runa feels like he can't see her, and he thinks that Runa can't see him. So, both wait for the other one to show up but both won't see the other one themselves."

"Runa was able to compensate Kai's death as the first one, and then was there for everyone else. They saw Kai's optimistic and never give up attitude in her, she was after all raised by him, and they were encouraged by her and processed everything pretty well."

"The only thing is that Runa didn't process a dang thing. She's always like that, feeling like she has to consider everybody else feelings first, she never thinks of herself. So after his death, she felt the need to act like she's alright, give people the hope, courage, and strength they need. She looked fine, she acted fine but once she was alone...that cover crumbled. She cried everything out she could afford, and since she was the one giving everybody the strength, there was no one to help her. She didn't want us to see her hurt, and we tried to bring Zane into it to help her, be there for her, but as we said, he was scared to hurt her even more. So, now he's blaming himself for not saving his brother and for letting Runa down."

"And if it comes to Runa's well being he's ready to do everything to protect her. And we too. We don't wanna see her hurt again. She doesn't deserve this."


	17. Anxiety

*Runa PoV*

"Argh..." my head is spinning. I feel so dizzy and so tired. I try to look around, try to recognize where I am. It's only dimly lit in the room I am in, but at some point, I understand that this isn't a room I know.

I want to say something but then I notice something stuffed in my mouth, I try to spit it out but it seems to be knotted together behind my head. Then I also notice that my arms are somehow above my head? I look up and see that my hands are roped to the wooden pillar I'm leaning against to. My eyes wide in shock and I try to move my arms and somehow free them. After some failed attempts and now bloody chafed wrists I look to my feet and see that they're also tied up, however, they are only roped together, so I could still move them. 

Ok, nice to know but that won't help me. Okay, don't panic, stay calm.

My hands start to shiver and then my whole body joins into the shivering. 

Stay calm Runa. No panic.

I feel how I start to pant and my huffing quietly, it's incredibly hard with this tissue in my mouth to breathe. My nose is free but still, I just can't concentrate on breathing through my nose. 

Air, I need air.

Stay calm.

Tears are forming in my eyes and slowly rolling down my cheeks.

Stay. The. Fuck. Calm. 

I shake my head, rattle with my hands, and stomp with my feet on the ground, somehow trying to calm down but nothing helps. Not even the pain my hands are causing me to stop.

Fuck.

"MRHRRHRH!!!!" I start to scream. Scream in anxiety, pain, panic, and insanity. I scream as loud as I can, even though my voice is muffled by this tissue. More and more tears roll down my cheeks only to fall on my legs. I still continue to stomp with my feet and pull at my arms, only to chafe my wrists more and more. This continues for some time, I lost it, I feel miserable. 

Lost like a child in a store. Alone. Scared.

At some point, I hear a loud squeak. Sounds like someone is opening an old door. I stop to scream, but my body is still shivering and moving. I only look around carefully, even though my sight is blurred by my tears. And I see some movements right in front of me, looks like someone walks over to me. The person kneels down in front of me and seems to reach out with one hand to me. I just shake my head, I pinch my eyes close and somehow try to move away from him. I feel a hand on my chin, pulling my head towards that person.

"Was my bunny scared? I'm sorry for letting you alone, in this shabby and dirty abandoned building. But I had to make sure nobody would find you."

That voice. I know that voice, but...he wouldn't do something like that...right? 

I open my eyes slowly and look at the person right in front of me. It's really him. More tears are forming in my eyes and roll down my cheeks. He lifts one hand and wipes them away with one finger.

"Pssst, don't cry Runa. I won't hurt you. I'm just trying to help you. So I'll remove now the tissue from your mouth alright? Please don't make us a hard time and don't scream."

He grabs the tissue out of my mouth, opens the knot, and removes it out of my mouth. I immediately gasp for air and start to couch quietly. After I calmed down a bit I look at him with an angry but still scared expression and still crying.

"P-Please...let me go...Elias..."

He huffs quietly and strokes gently over my cheek. "I fear, I can't do that my bunny."

"W-Why...why are you...doing this...?"

"Cause you're supposed to be mine!!! You don't belong to anyone else than me!!!" He clenched his hand into a fist and hits the pillar above me. "Especially not that guy...Laaaw!"

My eyes are wide in shock. No. No way. "W-What are you talking about, his name is Leo!"

"Huh...so he was right." He takes once again my chin into his hand but I just turn my head away from him. "This guy is really not who he seems to be. Good thing they take care of him. Once he's gone we can go wherever we want and do everything together. Nobody can stop us."

He strokes with his thumb over my lips but I just try to bite him, sadly he was able to withdraw his hand just in time. "What are you talking about?? You are insane, you lost your mind!!! Cut the crap!!"

"You're so ungrateful. If it wasn't for me you would be dead now." He looks down at me and touches my necklace. "But to save your life I have to bring them this." I look at him shooked and just bite into his hand as strong as I can. He starts to scream and slaps me across the face. I let go of his hand as my head flies to the side and just hangs down. I hear him huffing quietly as he stands up and holds his hand. "Tze Runa, you don't understand this. I'm doing all of this for you. And with me by your side, you'll be the happiest girl ever."

I slowly lift my head and look at him. "I'd rather be dead than to be with you psychopath." I spit in front of his feet and just hang weakly down. He looks down at me with a monotonous expression. For a moment it's silent until he walks to the door and is about to leave. He stops at the door. "I have to go now, but I'll come later. And then you should cooperate or it could get nasty for both of us."

Just when he pushes the handle of the door down and opens it I lift my head a bit and look at him. "One more thing." He stops in his movements and looks over his shoulder to me. I look at him with a confident smile. "If you think you can get rid of him so easily you're so wrong. You're messing with an enemy you're no match for."


	18. Attack

*Law's PoV*

The conference Zane and some other Policemen hold is over and now they are all fired up to find her. Even though I'm kinda still thinking about what Runa's friend told me. They told me pretty much, but I still have the feeling that something is missing. That there is still something about that whole thing. 

Anyway, that's not important right now. What's more important is that Zane is driving us home right now, even though the girls are protesting pretty strongly.

"Zane, you can't do that to us!! We want to help find her, we're just as worried about her as you!!!!"

Says Sophie and leans forward in the backseat. I'm sitting in the seat beside Zane and he's sitting in front of some kind of steering wheel for this machine. Even though this machine is strange it's still pretty fast. Anyways I look to the girls sitting in the back, all arguing angry and then I look at Zane clenching his hands into the weel, ready to say something when we hear a voice coming out of one of these phone things.

"Officer White, we checked some camera footage and found the moment she was kidnapped. They took her in a car and drove somewhere, the face of the person is not recognizable. Anyways we checked security cameras on the streets and found out the route they drove. We send you the location the car stopped at. Over."

The person stopped to talk and it seems like Zane received the location. He looks at it for a moment, sighs, and then turns the steering wheel around.

"Alright, but you four stay in the car do you understand me??"

The girls just look at him disappointed and nod. "Alright."

After a short ride, we arrive at an abandoned building. The building is pretty far outside the cityw and stands beside some other old, dilapidated buildings. Looks like the hangout for some teenagers and their parties. There are already some other police cars blocking the street and gather around the house. Zane opens the door on his side and gets out, before closing the door he looks one more time at us.

"I mean it, it could be dangerous please stay here." We just nod and he closes the door and then runs off to speak to some people. I watch him for a moment and then lay a hand on the door handle. Looks like it's time to use my powers to check on things, Runa said I shouldn't use them but I guess in that kind of situation it would be better to not listen to her. Just when I want to open the door I hear two clicks and two other doors open behind me. I turn around surprised and see that the girls got out of the car. Cora opens the door on my side and they look at me.

"Come on Leo, let's go." I get out and just want to say that they should rather stay inside when they already walk off. I sigh quietly and follow them, but the next moment they are already stopped by a policeman.

"Zane told us that you would probably try to do something. Come on just go back to the car." He looks at me. "Why didn't you stop them?"

"I would be an idiot to mess with three grown-up girls ready to risk everything to find their friend."

He sighs exhausted and looks at the three. "Look, we've got everything under control, please just go back to the car."

They start to discuss and try to convince the policeman to let them through. I just stand behind them and look at the abandoned house. It would be so much easier to check it with my powers, but I can't let anyone see me or I would be in some immense trouble. 

The girls keep discussing when they suddenly hear a loud thud. They all turn around and see a man laying on the ground in front of them. They look and see me dodging and fighting some guys. Their eyes wide in shock, along with the policeman. The other policemen along with Zane just wanted to storm the building when they notice what is going on and also watch me fight those idiots.

I knocked the first one out with a nice shoulder throw, he tried to sneak up to me from behind but I still noticed him. The next two attacked me from the left and right. I dodged the one attacking from the right, grabbed his arm, and threw him towards the one coming from my left, knocking both away. Then there are some more, I guess like 20 people all attacking me with knives and other weapons. The last one standing kinda lost his shit and just ran at me trying to stab me with a knife. I dodged the knife, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it around causing him to drop the knife. One of the guys stand up again and started to attack me again, I look at him, kick him with one kick away while twisting the guy's arm I'm holding behind his back, kicking into his knee bend so he falls down forwards. I hold him down on the ground and look at him with a monotonous expression.

"Who the fuck sent you." I push his arm up and he groans in pain.

"Arghhhh, I don't know, I don't know I swear!!! This guy just told us to get rid of you and paid us 10 Million dollars, I swear we know nothing!!!"

I look at him skeptically and get up. Some policemen walk over and start to arrest the guys, I just sigh quietly and walk back to the girls only to see them along with almost every other police officer looking at me with wide eyes and dropped jaws.

"L-Leo you...that was amazing," says Fiona, and the other two nod in agreement. Zane walks up to us and just looks at me incredulously. 

"E-Eh Leo are you alright? A-Are you...hurt?"

He looks past me to the unconscious guys laying on the ground while I cross my arms and shake my head. "I'm fine."

He looks back at me. "Ehm...alright we'll question them and find out later why they attacked you...quick question what's your occupation?"

"Doctor, why?"

"No reason..." he looks at me for a moment with an expression I can't really tell. Kinda...angry? Disappointed? Maybe also impressed?

Anyway, he starts to shake his head. "Alright anyway, I guess I can't bring you guys to stay inside the car. At least stay here and be careful alright?"

The girls walk over to me and all hug my arms. "Don't worry, we'll be alright as long Leo is here!!"

Zane looks at me again with this expression and then walks off.


	19. Escape

*Runa's PoV*

After he left I took some minutes to calm down. I'm scared as fuck, but I won't find a way out while freaking out. So after I calmed down I started to look around. Unlucky me this pillar stands in the middle of an empty room so there's nothing nearby that could help. I try once again to somehow free my hands, but I'm kinda distracted by my necklace.

//Why would he want my necklace...or rather, who would want my necklace, it's just an old necklace, nothing special. Even though I never checked if it's worth something...that would maybe explain the reaction of the antique dealer, maybe that's why he changed so suddenly.//

I continue to pull with my hands at the rope and then try to find a knot or something I could try to open. 

//Here's someone who knows about Law and who wants to get rid of him. He'll be fine but the fact that it has come so far is not good. Anyway, I can think about that later, I should rather concentrate on how to find a way out here. It could get dangerous.//

While checking the rope my hands are tied together with I noticed something cold and smooth in the wood. A nail! I feel for it and once I found it I try to scratch the head of it out with my nails. After some tries and now destroyed nails, I was able to get it out. Thank god my friends stopped me in my nail-biting habit, or I couldn't have done this. I hold the nail in my right hand and with my left hand, I press the rope against the pillar. I slowly start to push the nail tip into the rope. Sometimes I'm accidentally picking into my own hand, and since they are a bit bloody that's a little bit unpleasant, but I couldn't care less. After some picking, the rope started to slowly tear at that point I pushed the nail into. I tear the last bit apart and was able to get rid of the rope and free my hands. I look at my hands with big eyes, rub over my shady wrists and now also bloody hands and then open the rope tying my legs together. 

Once I was free I look at the nail in my hand and smile slightly. Never would've thought something like that would save me from this kind of situation. I walk over to the door and try to push the handle down, as quietly as possible. Nope, it's closed. I look around the room for another exit. No other doors, no windows, and the only ventilation duct is in the ceiling. Great and here's nothing else in this room that could help.

After thinking about how I could open the door or reach the ventilation duct I start to empty the pockets of my hood and pants, but something falls out of my pocket accidentally. I hear a dump sound and then also a light sound that sounds more times. I look down surprised and see a little box laying on the ground.

//Right, we got that stone from the antique dealer..//

I pick the box up and look around until I find the stone laying on the ground some meters away from me. I walk over there and pick the stone up. Just when my bloody fingers pick it up the stone starts to light up white. As soon as I see the bright light blending me my eyes close and I lose consciousness. 

...

I hear voices? They are in some distance, and pretty quiet but they are there. Where am I? Did I leave this room? Or was it all just a dream.

I sit up slowly, holding my head and looking around. I'm laying in a forest? But I heard people, that means there must be somewhere a city. Is this the park in my city? Since when does it look like a forest and why would I wake up here?

I look around and then notice the blue stone in my lap and then also my bloody hands. I look at the stone shocked and then once again around.

"D-Don't tell me I'm..." I look at the stone for a moment, I pull the sleeve from my hoodie over my hand and grab the stone gently. I put it in my pocket and then stand up. If I'm really in the other world I should be save here, I shouldn't go back now. I should wait for some hours, I'm sure my friends already noticed that I'm gone and they are searching for me.

I'm sure they told him too...and he'll definitely find me, I know it.

I hold my wrists and start to walk towards the voices I can hear in some distance. After some meters, the voices get louder and eventually I end in a city. Somehow released but also scared I looked at the buildings and the market which is built upon the street between these houses. Looks like a peaceful island, good, I shouldn't mess too much with this world. I'll just wait up some time and find something I can use to open that door, then travel back, hoping they already found Elias or he noticed that I'm gone and started to search me and then opening that door. I mean I could find something now and leave right now, but who knows what's behind that door. If Elias or someone else is there it's over, I won't get another chance like this. 

So I'll have to be patient. First if would be helpful to find some clean water to wash my wrists, maybe I'll find somewhere a lake. 

And with that, I start to make my way through this town on an island in a different world.


	20. Truth

*Law's PoV*

So, right now Zane and his team are storming the building and some other policemen take care of the guys I knocked out. I tried to get away, finding an empty place I could use my powers at but the girls just won't let go of me. 

//Couldn't I just let those policemen guys ask if they can look out for them for a moment? Then I would need a good reason to leave.//

Just when I want to say something we see Zane and the people he entered the building with, leaving it again. Zane seems pretty frustrated, he throws the light he was holding on the ground along with his weapon and walks straight up to us. The girls look at him surprised and want to ask him what's wrong but he just walks past them to me, grabs me by my collar, and looks at me angrily.

"You!! This is your fault!!! My little angle is hurt and this is your fault!!!"

I just stare at him with a monotonous expression while the girls try to pull him away from me.

"Zane, what are you doing!! Why are you so angry at Leo!!!"

Zane pushes the girls away and just shakes me by my collar. "You little shit!! What kind of person are you, you just showed that you're perfectly capable of beating the shit out of people!! You could've protected her, what did you do when she was taken, huh??? WHERE THE FUCK WHERE YOU!!?!"

The girls are finally able to pull Zane away from me with the help of two other policemen. The three girls stand in front of me and look at Zane.

"Zane, it isn't Leo's fault! We dragged him with us, he didn't go anywhere!!! We were the ones who left her!" says Cora and stands with her arms spread in front of me. 

Fiona walks over to Zane, takes on if his hands and looks at him worried. "Zane, Leo was the first one to notice that she was gone. If he hadn't noticed it so soon the search for her would've started later. And it would get more dangerous for her."

Zane calms down a bit but still stares at me with a murderous expression. "Fine, but what about those guys from before huh?? Why did they attack him, he surely has some bad people coming after him and when they noticed he's close to Runa they just kidnapped her!!! THIS IS YOUR FUCKING FAULT!!!!" 

He tries to rush over to me, the two policemen are barely able to hold him back and get some help from other men. The girls look at him sadly, disappointed, and worried.

Sophie walks over to one of the men who went into the building with Zane and asks him what they found. 

"The building was empty, we only found a barricaded basement. We broke it open and found inside the basement nothing but some bloody ropes laying around a pillar and some stuff on the ground. Zane took a short look at the things and then immediately rushed out again. When we looked at the stuff more closer we figured that it must be Runa's stuff since there was a wallet with a card and her name on it. And since the ropes were bloody.." he looks over to Zane and sighs quietly. "That's probably why he's now reacting like this. He's worried and we have no clue where she could be right now. We're investigating the building but yet we haven't found anything."

Sophie and the others look over to Zane while he stills try to rush at me. I look at him for a moment and then sigh quietly while grabbing my nose annoyed.

"Do you really think this behavior will help her?" Everybody looks at me surprised now while I just look at him. "The one person who's probably freaking out right now is Runa-ya. Don't waste your time trying to frame me for anything. Rather search for her. I thought you wanted to protect her, didn't you?"

He tears away from the grin of the men holding him, storms over to me, and is about to punch me in the face but I just grab his hand in time and look at him with a monotonous expression. Everybody around us gasps while he just stares on the ground, I notice that his hand starts shaking and I let go of it.

"You're good to talk. You have no clue...no clue...I would do everything to protect her...especially since he did so too...and since I failed to do it three years ago..."

The girls look at him kinda confused. They walk over to us. "Zane? What are you talking about...?"

"THAT HOSTAGE!!! T-The hostage...Kai protected and died for three years ago...it was...Runa. She was there when it happened..."

I see the eyes of the three girls wide in shock and their jaws drop. Looks like they didn't know. That was what Runa was hiding. It's not only pretty fresh, but she was also there.

Zane just looks on the ground and then closes his eyes. "I-I'm sorry girls...she said she didn't want you to worry about her... so we kept it a secret, and changed the information about the hostage to a random person who was there at the moment. That day...she visited us at the station. I was getting coffee for all of us, I was only gone for 2 minutes...and when I got back...I saw her, captured by some man holding a gun at her head." his hand clenches into a fist and he shakes his head fast. "D-Don't you see??? How dare you to question if I want to protect her?!?!? He did everything to protect her!!!" He grabs me once again by my collar and looks at me with a serious and determined expression. "So I'm following his example! I won't stop until I can hold her in my arms again, safe and sound. Even if it means to sacrifice everything."

I look at him for a moment and then free his hands from my collar. "Then go. Why are you wasting your time on me? Let's just say, if all of this is really my fault, don't you think I would've already bugger off? Especially since I was attacked right now. I have no clue why they did it. Who knows maybe they are the ones who kidnapped her and used the attack as a distraction to get her away."

He stills looks at me with a suspicious expression until the girls come to my side. "Zane, Leo would've never done anything that would hurt Runa. Indeed he helped her when she was corned by Elias...." For a moment it's silent until it seems like they have some kind of idea.

"Of course, Elias!!!!" Zane looks at them confused and they look at Zane determined. "Zane, Elias is in love with Runa and when she rejected and decided to stay with Leo he must've gotten jealous! That would explain everything!! You have to check on Elias!!!"

Zane kinda calms down and looks at them. "Do you have proof of that? Has he a criminal record or anything?"

The girls look at each other uncertain and sigh disappointed and shake their heads. I clear my throat and look at the sky. "I remember a scene in Runa-ya's room where he came her too close and grabbed her, hurt her even though she told him to stop. He didn't stop until I interfered. I think that counts as some kind of violence, right?"

The girls look at me with sparkly eyes and then look at Zane. "Leo's right!!! Zane, it must be Elias!!!"

He looks at them for a moment and seems to think about it. Then he turns around and talks to the other policemen. "Group 2 and 5 stay here, observe the building, report if someone comes near it. Group 1, 3, and 6, back to the station, interrogate those guys, and try to find out more. Group 4 will visit with me a certain person."

The girls start to cheer and run over to the machine we drove with here, Zane turns around and looks at me with a strange expression.

"I'm sorry Leo...I guess my feelings somehow freaked out. I hope you can forgive me for this one."

I huff quietly and turn around walking towards the machine while showing with my head that he should follow me. "Don't worry, already forgotten. Now come on, Runa-ya is waiting, isn't she?"

A smile appears on his face and he follows me towards the machine.

Looks like I can't use my powers yet either if I run off now, they would get more suspicious of me. Runa, you're really a troublesome person, making everybody around you worry so much.


	21. Relief

*Law's PoV*

Some hours have passed since the situation at that abandoned building. We drove together to Elias's apartment but he wasn't there. He couldn't be reached and nobody knows where he was in the last hours and especially at the time Runa disappeared so the police started a search for him and Runa. The guys who attacked me told the police only the same thing they told me. That they were paid to get rid of me. I mean, it doesn't seem like they knew who I am so they probably aren't from my world, but why would someone here pay those guys to get rid of me. Except for this Elias really got jealous as fuck and wanted to just kill me. 

Anyways, we searched through the whole day and night until the next morning. I'm sitting with Zane and the girls at the police station in the waiting room. We were driving around the whole time, questioning people and trying to find them, without luck. The three girls are cuddling on a couch together and sleeping peacefully. Zane covers them with a blanket, walks over to me, and gives me a cup of coffee before he sits down on the free armchair across from mine. 

"Still no sign from her..." says he and takes a big sip of his coffee. "Please...be alright Runa...my angel.."

I look at the cup for a moment and then at him. He wanted to continue searching but the boss of this station ordered him to take a break and sleep, he can't find her if he doesn't sleep, even though it looks like he can't really sleep. Zane looks at his cup for a moment and then at me.

"Can I ask you something, Leo?"

I take a sip of my coffee and nod. "Sure."

"Why can you fight like that? I would've thought that you are a policeman or a martial arts fighter, not really a doctor. You're also quite thin for your strength."

I take another sip of my coffee and try to think of a reasonable explanation. "I just trained in my free time, of course, I would've never thought it would come to an attack on me."

He nods quietly and puts the cup away. "I see..." He holds his head and leans back, taking a deep breath. And for the next time, we're quiet, just sitting in our armchairs and thinking. I think about the whole situation while Zane is probably only thinking about Runa. I mean, don't take me wrong I'm also worried but it's still a more complicated situation for me.

After some time something starts to ring, I look over to Zane and see how he takes something like a phone out of his pocket. The girls seem to wake up from that sound, they sit up slowly, yawn quietly, and rub over their eyes while looking at Zane who takes the call. 

"Officer White, what's wrong?"

"O-Officer White, group 2 and 5 reporting, you won't believe me. R-Runa we found her!!"

Zane eyes widen and he stands up while staring at the phone and the girl's jaws drop. "W-WHAT??? Really?? Wait, aren't you supposed to watch that building, where did you found her??"

"That's the thing, she just suddenly walked out of the building!!"

Zane looks at the phone skeptical and answers. "That can't be, we checked the building, she was nowhere and there weren't any other rooms we didn't check."

"We don't know either, sir. We tried to ask her but it seems like she lacks some memories. We called an ambulance and they said it's probably because of the shock. She only has some injured wrists and some bruises, but they brought her to be on the safe side to the Silvercreek hospital to check on her."

"Alright, thank you." He puts the phone away, grabs his jacket, and walks out. "Come on, let's go." 

Around a half-hour later we're at the hospital, walking through the floors over to her room. Zane stands in front of the room and seems to hesitate. He steps to the side and sighs. 

"I'll take care of the formals first. Go in." The girls look at him outraged and already want to push him inside but he's already gone.

"I can't believe he's still scared to face her," says Sophie and facepalms her face. Fiona and Cora laugh quietly and place both a hand on Sophie's shoulder. "Come on, he can see her later. Let's go in now."

Fiona knocks at the door and opens it, inside we see a typical hospital room, only with the difference that on one bed is a person sitting, clothed in those hospital coats and with bandaged arms. Beside her sits a man on a chair, talking to her. Once the man notices us he stands up and walks over to us. 

"Please, stay calm, she's pretty exhausted," says he to us and then walks out. After the door closes the girl sitting in the bed looks over to us, lifts one hand weakly, and winks us while smiling.

"Hey.."

In the corner of my eye, I notice the three girls tearing up and then running over to Runa, hugging, crying, and saying things like they are glad that she's alright, or that they are happy to see them again. I just shake my head, huff quietly, and then also walk over to her bed. Runa laughs quietly and just hugs her friends back.

"I-I'm also happy to see you guys...b-but, please...aaair"

Her friends gasp shocked and back up in an instant, she laughs quietly and then notices me standing behind the girls, looking at her with a slight smile.

"Leo..."

"Glad to see you're alright Runa-ya."

We just look at each other for a moment while the girls start to look from her to me then back to her and so on. Until they remember something and then walk back to the door.

"We're right back!!!" They run out and leave me with Runa alone. I sit down on the chair the doctor sat before and look at her.

"I figure you were tied up?" I say and point at her bandaged wrists.

She laughs quietly and looks at me with a little smirk. "Typical Law, always straight forward. However, yes I was. It was quite hard to get out of them."

"So...memory loss?"

"Oh no. That was a lie. I had to. I had to lie about where I was, or should I've said I sent myself accidentally into another world with a stone?"


	22. Emotions

*Law's PoV*

My eyes wide and I stare at her, not believing what she just said. "W-What?"

She smiles slightly and points to the nightstand beside her. I look at it and see a little blue stone laying on it. 

"It was the stone we got from the antique dealer. The aquamarine stone is the stone we were searching for. I accidentally dropped it once I freed myself and since my wrists were shady my hands got bloody. And when I picked it up I fell unconscious and woke up somewhere else. Since I had no other way out of the room I decided to stay there for some hours, hoping Elias would've noticed that I was gone and would've started to search for me so I could leave the room without anyone noticing. I used the stone to come back, I was pretty weak so I blacked out when I used it, but when I woke up again I was back in this world. When I walked outside the building police suddenly surrounded me and once they noticed who I am, I decided to play scared and act as I forgot about everything. That means I have to lie...but who would believe me if I told the truth, they would think I turned nuts. Not risking ending up in an asylum."

"So it was really Elias. Did you already tell that to the police? And Asylum?"

"Yes, I did. And that's an institution for the care of people who are mentally ill. And since I had some...events in my past people would think what happened now 'destroyed' me or gave me the rest to losing my mind."

"With events you mean your parents, Kai...and you being the hostage."

When I said the last thing she turned her head towards the wall across from her bed, she looks at it with a kinda sad smile and sighs quietly. "Zane told you huh?"

"Yes, your friends know too. It was a kinda tense situation and it's a little bit my fault. I hope you're not mad."

She smiles slightly and shakes her head. "I'm not don't worry. I don't want them to worry about me, his death hit them too. So I did-"

"Everything you could to act alright and cheer people up."

She pulls her legs to her chest, places her head and her knees, and looks at me with a slight smile. "Wow, looks like you already know everything. Didn't took you long to find out. Yes, you're right, I don't want anybody to worry about me. Even though..that day was awful. It's hard to hold someone dear in your hands and see them bleed through their chest. I didn't want anybody to think I'm weak, I wanted to show strength like him. Even if it meant to deal with it alone." Some tears appear in her eyes, she wipes them away and looks at me with a smile even though her eyes are still teary. "What am I talking about to you. You went through worse and I'm the one complaining."

I look at her for a moment, then sigh quietly and look out the window. "You know, I figured out that pain is nothing comparable. It hurts, for one person more, for the other less. Some get over it immediately, some need more time and some might never come over it and bear it with them their whole lives. 'We all bear some kind of pain don't we?' those are the words a smart girl told me some time ago. Just because out of your view the things I lived through are worse, doesn't mean your pain can't hurt. After all, what happened made you wthe person you're today" I rotate my head towards her. "Right?"

She looks at me kinda surprised, then something appears on her face, a smile. But not just a simple smile, it's honest. "Right. Thank you, Law."

I close my eyes and lean back on the chair and shake my head. "You're welcome. And now, face your pain. Now is the best moment to talk to Zane, right? "

"Yes. We waited for too long. Where is he?"

"The girls run out to get him. I'm sure they'll be back at any moment."

Runa nods slowly and then seems to remember something. She lifts her head and looks at me with big eyes. "Law, Elias knew your real name! He said someone wants to get rid of y-"

"Oh, they already tried." She looks at me surprised and I sigh. "Some morons attacked me, but I fought them off. Since they attacked me Zane thought some evil people were after me and kidnapped you because of me. He calmed down after we told him the whole story around Elias. However...it's still strange that someone tried to get rid of me...if Elias didn't know me but tried to get rid of me that would somehow still make a change...but how does he know."

I think about it for a moment and then notice how she grabs the stone from the nightstand and holds it out to me. "You don't have to think about it anymore. Take the stone and go back to your world. You were here long enough."

I look at the stone for a moment and then at her. I sigh quietly and close her hand with the stone. "You really think I'm leaving now? With this Elias still running around somewhere, no thank you. I'll stick around for some more time, some days longer won't hurt. And I owe you one."

She just looks at me surprised, but then she smiles slightly and puts the stone back on the nightstand. "Alright Law. Thank you."

"No problem Runa-ya."

We talk for some more time when we hear a knock at the door. I look to the door and see that the door is a gap open, the girls are laughing quietly and show me to come out. I look at Runa and stand up. "I think it's now time. See you later Runa-ya." She winks me while I leave the room, outside I see the girls holding Zane there and I open the door for him to enter.

"Come on." He hesitates and the girls just want to push him inside, but I'm faster, I push him inside and close the door behind him. The girls look at me surprised and then at each other. 

"Leo, I wouldn't have thought you would do something."

I sigh quietly and the three open the door a bit to peek inside. "I can't watch them any longer." They are worse than my crew. The three just look inside and then look at each other with a smile, they look at me and then at the gap. I look at them confused and look through the gap. I already thought it is strange that I don't hear them talking once I look inside I see Zane sitting on her bed and just hugging her tight. Her face faces the door we're looking through and I can see her crying strong and just hugging Zane back. I close the door quietly and the girls just look at each other, smiling and relieved. The three start to walk off, I just follow them kinda confused.

"Wait for you three, you didn't talk to her yet."

Fiona turns around to me and smiles. "Oh, trust me they have a lot to catch up on, we shouldn't interfere."

"Yes and," says Cora and looks to me too. "We can see her later. For now, we should get home and rest a bit."

"I mean we head some sleep at the police station, but you Leo, you didn't sleep for quite some time now right? So let's go home and take a rest. We can visit her later today or tomorrow."

And with that, we all start to walk off together.


	23. Dream

<< 3 years ago >>

Runa, 18 years old. At the police station.

Right now I'm sitting in the conference room with Kai and Zane and some other police officers and the police chief. They are only talking about some boring things so it's not bad that I'm there and listing. And since I know all of them pretty well and the other way round, it's already like I'm part of the station.

While they are talking about the things I lean over to Zane who sits on the right side beside me and whisper.

"Don't you think that the chief looks with his hair like a cat?"

Zane looks at the chief who talks is directed to a whiteboard and shows something on it. He leans down to me and whispers back.

"That's rude Runa, he looks like a dog."

I hold my laughter back and Kai who sits to my left leans to us and whispers. "I think he rather looks like a Kakadu, look he has a bird crest." All of us look at him and once we saw it we immediately start to cover our mouths and try to hold our laughter back. At some point everybody noticed the three of us freaking out and turning red. They all start to laugh, even the chief and with that, we also started to burst out in laughter. We all just laughed together and the topic of why this conference took place was forgotten and we just had a good time. At some point, Zane, Kai, and I left the room and walked through the corridor. Zane stops at a door and looks at us. "Alright, I get us some coffee, wait for me in our office."

Kai winks him and nods. "Alright." Zane walks off and we make our way to their office. Kai ruffles through my hair. "If you continue to bomb our conferences the chief is going to sew me and Zane."

I look up to him and pout. "Hey, you were the one who said that with the Kakadu, it's your fault." we both start to laugh and continue to walk through the corridors. 

"But you're the one who started it so"

I laugh and walk around a corner while looking at him. "Don't worry, if he will ever sew you we'll split yo-OW!"

I bumped into a person. I backed up and just when I wanted to look up to the person I see the muzzle of a gun directly in front of my eyes. Before I can even react before I can even think a thing I hear Kai scream my name. Just when I want to look over to him an arm grabs me and pulls me away. The man I bumped into with, holds me with one arm in a stranglehold and with his free hand, he holds the gun at my head. We're facing Kai, he also dragged out his gun and aims with it at us while staring at the guy with an angry expression. I slowly lift my hand and grab the arm holding and pinching off my air. I just look at Kai, scared, panicking, and with tears slowly forming in my eyes.

"PUT THE GUN DOWN AND NOBODY GET HURT!!!!" I hear a voice scream behind me. Kai immediately puts the gun down and kicks it with his foot behind him. He lifts his hands slowly.

"Alright. How about we all calm down...let's talk. My name is Kai White. What do you want?"

Kai and the criminal holding me start to talk about something, even though I can't really hear what. It doesn't matter, either way, it wasn't important enough for me to remember. I can only remember little things. Like a crowd of police officers and the chief appearing behind Kai and staring at the scene in front of them shocked. They all got out their guns, pointing at the criminal to support their friend in the worst case. Even though the worst case would also mean to shoot at me. At some point, I heard a familiar voice call my name, and in the corner of my eyes I saw Zane, trying to run over to us but two other policemen are holding him back, saying it's too risky. That's all I can still recall, those are some small memories of that day.

For me, the most important memory was Kai, standing right in front of me, and trying to calm the criminal threatening my life down. His eyebrows twitch, his hand is clenched into fists, and trembles just like my whole body. 

I can't really tell what happened in the next seconds, everything happened to fast. 

The criminal starts to scream something and to push the gun harder to my head. 

Kai dashes forward to us and screams also something.

I hear a lot of screams, from the other police officers, from the chief and Zane.

Even though they all scream, for me they are just muffled sounds. 

Until I feel someone pushing me out of the grip of this criminal.

And then a loud bang.

-

Silent.  
It was so freaking loud a moment ago. But now, the whole world seemed to turn on mute.

Everything is silent at the moment I fall to the ground with Kai who pushed me out of the criminal's grip.

I only see his eyes close and his face turning into a painful expression. 

We both fall to the ground. I land on my side and slide a little way till the next wall stops me. I slowly lift my head only to see Kai laying on the ground, not moving and a blood pond forming under him.

My eyes wide in shock, my hands tremble while I sit up and crawl over to him. 

At that point, I started to hear noises again. I hear a lot of voices scream 'Go get him.' or something like that and then footsteps running away, and more guns cocking and then more shoots.

Maybe it wasn't exactly like that, I can't really recall.

I'm just sitting beside Kai and staring at him with more tears forming in my eyes. I gently place his head on my lap and just look at him, shaking my head and crying strong. He looks at me with a weak smile and his eyes only opened a gap.

"K-Kai..." 

"I-I'm...sorry...Runa...I guess...my t-time here..." he coughs up a little blood. "I-Is...over..."

"No, no..don't say that!" I look at the wound in his chest, his whole chest is covered in blood. I press both hands on the wound.

"Y-You'll live you hear me! D-Don't die on me now!!!!!" While pressing with both my hands on the wound I can hear a silent and weak laugh from him and then notice that he places his hand on mine and squeezes them weakly. I look at his face and shake my head a little while more tears roll down my cheeks.

"P-Please...I-I can't do this without you..! I-I don't wanna be alone again!!"

"Oh, Runa..." he smiles slightly and just holds my hands. "I-I'll never be...t-truly gone...and...you a-aren't alone....I-I know that you...can d-do this...y-you're my daughter...right?"

I just look at him, crying strong and nodding. I slowly lean down and give him and kiss on the cheek and touch his forehead with mine.

"I-I love you, dad..."

I notice that he kinda looks at me surprised before he smiles again and also some tears appear in his eyes. "I-I love you...t-too Runa...my angel.."

Those are his words before his eyes close the hand squeezing mine till the end gets weak.

For a moment I just sit there, looking at his peaceful face.

Before losing it.

Before I screamed everything out of me.

I can't remember what happened afterward.

...

Huh?

I open my eyes and look around confused.

Didn't I wake up from that dream? Or am I still dreaming?

Why is everything black?

I look around trying to figure out what is happening when I see a white ball of light in front of me.

Just when I want to say something I see images flashing before my eyes. 

Two persons.

A wall of stone.

A symbol.

A compass.

A strange fruit. 

A creature.

A blue light.

It's so bright, it's blending me and lights up the whole room.


	24. Home

<<4 days later>>

*Runa's PoV*

Finally, the day I can leave that hospital arrived. They held me there for some days, I was physical alright but since everybody was concerned about my mental condition they wanted to test me. They also wanted me to take therapy sensations, but I declined. After all, in those three days everything that haunted me somehow resolved.

I talked with Zane, it was like he was never gone. We talked about everything, we cried and laughed together. Talked about Kai, about us, and our feelings. I told him that nothing that happened that day is his fault, that I know that he isn't Kai and that his look didn't hurt me. And he told me that nothing on that day was my fault either, that I shouldn't always hold back my feelings and think about everyone else first. Let's say we reunited and promised to talk openly about our feelings, and to never forget about Kai.

My friends were normal like they always were, crazy but loveable. They first blamed me for lying to them about Kai's death and me being there, but then we all forget about that. They told me that I shouldn't always hide everything, cause if I do everybody would just worry even more. And after those, it was like nothing ever happened. They didn't talk about the whole Elias situation unless I started the conversation. I love them.

And Elias? That bastard turned himself in. Zane told me that during his interrogation he only said one thing: I couldn't find her. So I'd rather turn myself in then to face him. Nobody understood what he meant by that. I have my suspicions when he talked to me in the basement he sometimes talked about other people. Like he mentioned something like 'they' or 'them'. Maybe the people who attacked Law were meant with them. As soon as Law is back in his world those problems just disappear.

And about my dreams, of course, I still have dreams about my parents and Kai, and sometimes even dreams about the whole kidnap situation, but I'm dealing pretty good with them. They scare me and make me sad but I can't let them haunt me forever. But there's still something that I don't understand. The first night here in the hospital I had the same dream about Kai I always had. However, something was different and it was also the first and last time that happened. I haven't told anybody about it since I don't know what it was about. 

Anyway, that's what happened during my time in the hospital. And now, I can finally leave and go home. I sign the last papers, say goodbye to the doctor and nurses who treated me and walk out of the hospital to see my friends, Zane and Law already standing outside waiting for me. I walk over to them with a smile.

"You don't know how happy I am to walk around again. Hopefully, I'll never have to visit a hospital ever again."

All of them laugh and we walk over to the parking lot. We talk a bit, about the party they want to have in order to celebrate my release and much more. I just smile happily while we walk to the two cars standing next to each other. The grey one is our car and the black one is Zane's. Wish I could say what kind of cars they are but I have no clue, cars aren't exactly my thing. I only know that Cora picked our car and that she loves it. Anyway, the girls look at me a little bit sad.

"Sadly we'll have to leave now. We have lessons, argh" says Sophie and moans annoyed. I laugh quietly and wave them. "It's okay, don't worry. I'll see you three later."

They enter our car kinda sad and then drive off. Zane looks at me and Law and points at his car. "Come on, I'll drive you two home."

We both get in the car and Zane drives us home. On the way, I just look out of the window and watch the street, houses, and cars pass by. At some point, we reach the house my friends and I live in. Once the car stops I jump out of the car, run over to the house, and just 'hug' the house wall. "Home sweet home!!!"

Law watches me with a raised eyebrow while Zane chuckles quietly and walks over to the door opening it. When I hear the door opening I rush over to it and run inside. I run into the living room and throw myself on the couch. Zane and Law also come in, walk into the living room, and watch me cuddle the couch.

"You were gone for like...five days," says Law, and Zane just laughs. "Come on, let her have this. Runa once you're finished cuddling everything let's prepare something to eat, alright?"

I immediately sit up. "I'm finished. FOOD!" I jump up and run into the kitchen. After some days with the food from the hospital, I'm starving. Don't take me wrong, the food isn't bad, but it wasn't enough for me. Yes, I eat a lot. The two follow me and in the kitchen and we start to prepare something to eat when Zane's walkie-talkie rings. He takes it out and talks with the person on the other side.

"Alright, I'm on the way." he puts the walkie-talkie away, sighs quietly, and looks at me sadly and apologizing, but I just smile at him.

"Come on go, and lock away some bastards."

He huffs quietly and walks away. Now it's only me and Law, he sits at the table and drinks a coffee while I'm eating some strawberries.

"Looks like now's a good moment for you to go."

"You think so?" He looks from his coffee to me and puts the cup down.

I take the stone out of my pocket and take a knife out of a drawer. "Yeah, Elias is caught and you've waited long enough. You helped to reunite with my family, now I want you to go back to your family." He stands up while I walk over to him and pass him the stone and the knife. He takes them from me and huffs quietly. "That crazy bunch is only my crew."

I cross my arms and look at him with a smile, a raised eyebrow, and while rolling my eyes. "Riiiiight. Anyways, looks like a goodbye."

He cuts slightly with the knife into his finger and then looks at me. "Yes. Thank you for your help Runa. I'll take care of the other stones in my world. It was an honor to meet you and your world, even though it's still a shocking discovery."

I chuckle quietly and nod. "Who are you telling that." 

He looks at the stone and then at the cut on his finger. A little bit of blood comes out of it and he presses it on it.

We wait for some seconds, but instead of that white light, a red light appears, and...nothing happens?

"WAIT WHAT- ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? WHY DOES NOTHING HAPPEN!?"


	25. University

Why is nothing happening??? It's supposed to bring him to the other world as it did with me, why isn't it working????

"No, this can't be!!!" I take the stone and look at it from every side. It still looks exactly the same, no cracks, nothing, it isn't broken. I take Law's thumb and smear his blood over it again. "Come on work, why won't you work???" As I still try to somehow activate the stone, Law sat down again, grabbed his nose bone, and massaged it. After many failed attempts I sit down and just look at it disappointed. Law meanwhile walks annoyed around the room. I wipe the stone with a tissue clean and just look at it. 

"I don't get it...why didn't it work..."

Law stops, takes a deep breath, and then looks at me. "Are you sure it's that stone?"

"Yes, it has to. You saw it yourself it glowed red, normal stones here don't glow at all. However...when I used it, it glowed white and brought me to the other world and...I don't remember what happened when I got back..."

"Yes, my stone also glowed white, and then I ended up here..."

I just look at the stone, disappointed, and not understanding it. "Maybe...maybe..." I sigh frustrated and place it on the table. "I don't know. Alright, maybe we should try again with another stone. We know that Aquamarine stones bring us to the other world, so we'll just get another. Maybe they only work one time."

"If they really work only one time how did you come back?"

"I don't know, maybe it's broken, or something in the other world caused the stone to work one more time, I don't exactly remember what happened I was so tired and weak." He sighs quietly while I put the stone back into my pocket. I take my phone out of my pocket and skip through some messages. A lot of people messaged me, asking how I am and if everything is alright. I'll reply to them later, right now I want to check online shops for the stone when I get a news push notification. I look at it confused and just when I open I stare at my screen in shock.

"N-No way..." Law walks around the table over to me and looks at my screen. The screens show a live news show about my university. 

"Allison Parker here. The situation at Edukus University is tense. The 7 criminals who broke into the building and took everybody hostage are clearly outnumbered by the police but still, they seem to be unnatural strong! They are using old-fashioned guns and swords! We don't know yet what they want, but the police already gathered around the building. More information later."

I stand up while dropping my phone and look at Law scared. "Law my friends are in there!!" I start to walk off and he holds me by my hand. 

"What do you think you're doing?? You just got out of the fucking hospital!"

"Look, unnatural strong and old-fashioned guns and swords, they must be from your world!!! If that's true the police can't stand a chance against them! You're the only one who can fight them!" 

"Then let me go there and beat the shit out of them. And you stay here."

I look at him with a determined expression"Law, my friends are in there and in danger, Zane is also there, I won't wait here and do nothing! I'll do everything to protect them." I look at him with a determined expression, he looks at me for a moment, then sighs quietly and let's go of my hand. 

"You're all too similar. Alright, but you'll stay by my side and if it gets too dangerous I will bring you out of there."

We both leave the house and make our way to the university. Once we arrive there we're standing in the middle of a crowd. The place around the university is blocked off, holding all the civilians back. At some point, Law grabbed my hand and walked with me out of the crowd again. He walked into an empty alley and let's go off me there.

"And what do we do now?" 

He lifts one hand and looks at me. "I'll use my powers."

I look at his hand for a moment, then sigh quietly and nod. "Alright. We go in there and check the situation out, you'll find the guys, fight them and I'll free the people."

"No, I told you, you'll stay with me."

I sigh quietly and just nod. "Alright, alright don't worry."

Law nods and reaches with his second hand to me. I take it and he creates with his lifted hand a room, big enough to cover the university and not visible. 

"Shambles." The next moment we're inside the university building. We both look around. Nobody here, it's actually really quite here.

We start to walk through the hall and look around when we hear a loud bang. I turn my head around surprised but can't really react, Law luckily grabs me in time and jumps with me away. He pulls me behind him and lifts his right hand while looking at the man who aimed at us. The man looks at us smirking, he puts his gun down and draws a sword. 

"Ah, here are you. We've been waiting for you. You're after all the main actors in this thing."

Law creates his room and just stares at the man, unimpressed. He simply switches out the sword with the bullet the guy shoot before. He stares surprised at his hand while Law grabs the sword from the ground and then looks at the guy. He stares at Law shocked and already wants to shoot at Law again but Law is faster, he knocked the guy out with one moved and teleported into the alley we came from. "One out, six left."

He turns around and walks over to me. I'm just staring at the ground, with wide eyes and I'm breathing kinda panicked. Only when he lays his hand on my shoulder I look at him and calm down a bit. 

"Runa? Are you okay?"

"Ehm.." I look around, then take a deep breath and nod. "E-Eh yes, let's go."

I start to walk off and he follows me, but not without looking at me with a strange expression.

We walk around a corner into the next part of the corridor when we hear two voices behind us.

"So...Law and Runa. You finally arrived."


	26. Meet

We immediately stop and turn around. He looks at me surprised while I just point at myself. "Why me? What did I do?"

We hear the two guys laugh and then turn around to them, they both draw their weapons and look at me smirking.

"Don't play innocent, now make it easy and let us finish our job!!!" Both dash forward, ready to attack us with their weapons. I back away, holding my arms protectively in front of my head and looking away. I hear a noise that sounds like metal clashing together and I open me slowly only to see that the two guys are lying unconscious on the ground and that Law is teleporting them away like the first guy.

"Huh...good job." Law walks over to me and nods. 

"Yeah. More importantly now, why would they be interested in getting you?"

We continue to walk through the corridor and I just look around. "No clue. I think it could be the person Elias worked together with." Law nods slowly while we continue to make our way through the hallway. I told Law everything about what happened with Elias, about the things he said and wanted to do. However, it doesn't make sense. Those guys are from the other world, why would they be interested in something from this world, and why in this old necklace I'm wearing. I shake my head, no time to think about that we have to find the hostages. We walk through the corridor and I lead us towards the biggest room in the university, the auditorium. We both look through the door inside and see over all the seats and the stage at the end of the room. I take a closer look at the sits and notice that people are sitting in them. I run over to them and look at them shocked and worried, but they aren't hurt they are sleeping?

"Hey, hey wake up!!" I shake two persons at their shoulders but they won't wake up. "This is bad, what do we do La-"

Just as I turn around I see Law fighting four men. I stare at them shocked and I almost get hit with the handle of a sword.

"Woah!!!" I back up and start to run down the stairs to the stage, I climb on the stage and look to Law still fighting the four guys, he created his room and seems to handle the guys pretty good. Those must be the last four guys, three are already knocked out. I look over all the seats in the room, all of them are sitting people but they are all sleeping. Nobody is tied up or seems to be hurt, they're just sleeping. I look around trying to find something that could maybe wake everything up. 

"No more move." I immediately stop once I hear that voice, I slowly turn around only to see another person, wearing a black cloak and covering his face with a hood. I stand across from him and just stare at him surprised.

//I thought there were supposed to be 7 criminals, who's he??//

He's just standing there and staring at me, I can't see his face but I feel a strong piercing look on me.

"It's an honor to finally meet you. Even though it's rather that you meet me for the first time. I know you for quite some time now."

I look at him skeptically. What is he talking about, have we met before.

"However, I'm sick of you. And everything I tried until now failed so...it looks like I'll have to take things in my own hands, can't trust someone else to take care of your shit."

Just when I want to say something he lifts his right hand and it seems like he's holding something. Once I noticed what it is my whole body froze. I just stare at, sadly, the familiar muzzle of a gun while he slowly walks towards me.

"Now, take your necklace off and lay it on the ground and nobody will get hurt."

I just keep staring at the gun pointing at me. My necklace? I remember something that happened with Elias in that basement. 

<<"If it wasn't for me you would be dead now." He looks down at me and touches my necklace. "But to save your life I have to bring them this">>

//Elias needed to bring someone else my necklace, so that person must be him. And it looks like he also wants me dead, along with Law. No matter if I give him my necklace or not, he'll kill us.//

He keeps walking towards me and loads the gun which gives me goosebumps all over my body. "Come on, or am I supposed to rip it off your neck???" He growls with a demonic and angry voice. 

I just keep staring at him but then slowly lift my hands to my necklace, opening it and taking it off my neck. I can't take my eyes off that gun muzzle, it's like a deja-vu, a bad dream repeating itself. I hold the necklace with shaky hands when he comes closer and closer with that gun. 

I only see one way he might let me live. I trust Law's abilities, they won't be able to kill him. So right now my life is in danger here, so at least I should try it.

I take a deep breath and yell "LAW!! A PLACE ONLY YOU AND I KNOW!!!" while throwing my necklace over my shoulder into the air. I hear the guy growl angry and watching my necklace fly over the seats through the air. Law is right now keeping back the last one of the guys, once I started to scream he watched me throwing the necklace way, which seems like he understands. He holds the guy back with the sword in his left hand while lifting his right one and creating a room. It's so big that it covers the whole auditorium, and once the necklace is inside the room he says 'shambles' and the necklace disappears. Instead of the necklace, there's only a piece of glass falling on the ground.

I just keep staring at the muzzle in front of my face when I hear a silent laugh and see that he puts the gun down. He turns around and walks some steps away from me while laughing creepily. 

"Looks like you outsmarted me. That's one point for you. However, believe me when I say that I hate you from the bottom of my dead soul and that you will perish. I know your weaknesses." He turns around and plays with the gun in his hands. "I know everything about you, or rather I know even more about you than yourself. We'll meet again soon, so prepare yourself. Cause right now your whole existence is just a pathetic excuse."

I just stare at him shocked and confused. What the fuck is he talking about. He takes something out and I notice something small in his hands. It's...blue? I can't really see it, but it reminds me of something. Once again I hear his crazy laugh while that thing starts to light up blue.

"See you later, 'Runa'" He pronounces my name so strangely, kinda sarcastically? Anyways the blue light starts to blend me, I close my eyes for a short moment, but once I open them again...

He's gone.

Wait.

HE'S GONE???


	27. Questions

"WHAT??" I run over to the spot he stood a second ago and look around. He's nowhere, he can't just disappear in a split of a second. Except...

I reach into my pocket and just when I want to take something out Law lays a hand on my shoulder and turns me around to him.

"Sorry that I couldn't help you are you alright?"

"Huh?" I take my hand out of my pocket and then look at him. I notice behind him the four men he fought laying together unconscious on the ground, I nod and then look back at him. "Ehm, yeah don't worry I'm fine."

Law takes his hand off my shoulder, he sighs quietly and then lays his sword on the ground. "Okay good. Anyways what did he wanted from you? Just your necklace?"

I just look at the ground, trying to understand what just happened when we hear some quiet moans. We both look up only to see all the sleeping people slowly waking up again. Law takes my hand and creates his room. "For now let's get out of here. Shambles."

He uses his power and now we're standing in an alley near the building. Law looks around and kneels down while I just look around. 

"I know that alley." He looks under a trash container and then reaches gently under it. I notice some glass shards lying beside and under the container and then understand. He grabs something under the container, stands up again, and gives me my necklace.

"Of course, you switched my necklace with one of the glass shards in the alley you brought me when we first met. And then threatened me with the same glass." He gives me the necklace and nods.

"Correct, it was the only place I could reach with my room and we both know."

"Right..." I just hold my necklace in my hand and hold it in front of my face while looking at it. "I don't understand it...why is everybody after my necklace...what does this mean for me...?"

Law looks at me for a moment and then looks up to the sky lost in thoughts. "It doesn't have to mean something. The necklace just could've somehow ended up in this world, your parents somehow got it and gave it to you."

I look at him, then nod quietly and put my necklace back on. I hold the two pendants in my hand for a moment and then hide them under my shirt.

"Alright. For now, let's go home. Zane or the girls shouldn't see us here, or they would kill both of us."

"Agree." 

We both make our way home and on the way, I tell Law everything about that guy, I tell him every single detail and wort he said. Once we arrived home we sat down in the living room, Law holds my necklace in his hands and just looks at it while I think about the whole situation. I remember something and then take out the portal stone.

"You know Law..."

He looks up from the two pendants and looks at me. I fidget with the stone around my fingers and look at it from every side.

"He suddenly disappeared, in a split of a second, he was gone. He took something out of his pocket, something small and blue. It started to light up blue and then he was gone."

"Are you saying he went into my world?" I give him the stone and nod. 

"Yes, it would make sense, he went with those criminals from your world into mine. He needs a stone to do so. The only thing I don't understand is..."

"Why his stone glowed blue, right? Ours lighted up white. Maybe you can use them more than one time, and if you do it will glow blue." He looks at the stone and my necklace while I sigh quietly.

"This all is too much for me. Why does it always have to be so complicated?" 

We both sigh when we hear a door unlocking. Law gives me my necklace and the stone back. We see my friends coming through the door. I immediately jump up and run over to them hugging them.

"Guys!!! And you told me I shouldn't worry about you anymore, are you alright??"

The three of them smile kinda awkwardly and nod. "Yeah, sorry about that," says Sophie, and the other three nod.

"What happened??? We only saw in the news that the university was infiltrated!! Is somebody hurt??"

Fiona shakes her head. "No, don't worry. It's true that 7 robbers entered the building, but nobody got hurt. We didn't even notice anything, everybody gathered in the auditorium and then...I don't quite remember what happened then." She looks at the other two and they nod agreeing.

"Yeah, it was so strange," says Cora and ruffles through her hair. " When I woke up again in the auditorium policeman escorted all of us out of the building and then there were also four unconscious men being arrested by a police officer. Outside we found Zane and he told us what happened, we were, of course, shocked but since we didn't even notice anything and nobody got hurt it's not a big deal. Even though it's strange why do the criminals were unconscious..."

Law and I both at each other, fully aware of why they were but we don't say anything. 

"Anyway, it's not so important so everything is fine. But Zane is now caught up in some work, he told us to eat without him."

"Oh alright. I'm glad you three are alright. I was scared."

Sophie huffs quietly and ruffles through my hair. "Now you know how we felt, problem child."

I look at her, pouting and with crossed arms. "Heeeeeeeey." All of us start to laugh and we walk into the kitchen, to eat something.

<>

Right now, Law and I are sitting in my room, still thinking about everything that happened. 

"I still got so many questions," I say while laying in my bed and staring at the ceiling. We're ready to go to sleep and laying in our beds, but I kinda can't sleep, and it looks like Law can't too.

"I sadly can't answer you any. I think it would at least help if I could remember where I know your two pendants. But I have no clue." he sighs quietly. "Maybe it'll help to sleep over it. You should also do so."

I take a deep breath and nod. My dump ass forgot that he can't see me. "Right." I turn on my side and move my pillow into a comfortable position. "Good night Law."

"Good night Runa-ya."


	28. Nothing

<>

Surprisingly, I'm not dreaming of something I usually dream of. 

No, it's something else, but still familiar. The night before I dreamed something similar.

I'm again standing in the middle of nothing. Everything is black. 

"Hello?" I look around, I only hear the echo of my voice. I try to see something, but no matter how hard I try I can only see black. I'm standing in the middle of nowhere. I slowly start to walk forwards. I don't have a goal or something I orientate myself to, I just walk and look around. "Hello? Where am I? What does this mean?" 

Once again, I can only hear my echo. I keep walking, walking, and walking. It feels like I'm walking for ages, but It's probably just some minutes. I sigh quietly when I hear a silent sound behind me. "Who's there??" I immediately turn around, hoping to see something. But still, there's nothing. I keep turning around, waiting for another sound, or trying to see something.

"Runa..."

I gasp quietly and turn around kinda scared and shocked. That voice sounded too quiet and weak, but still...somehow warm and comfortable. As if I know that voice. "Who are you?? Where are you??"

"Runa...you have to return.."

"Return?? Where to?" A bright, white light suddenly appears in front of me. I cover my eyes and then slowly look back at the light. I look at it kinda skeptical and just when I want to say something my necklace...flies off my neck? It flies towards the light, on his own!!

"Woah!! No, wait!!!!" I run after my necklace towards the light. The nearer I get the bigger the light gets. I reach out my head, trying to grab my necklace but I just end up running into the light. I closed my eyes since it was so bright and once I opened them again I see that my necklace stopped midair. I grab it and then just hold it tight in my hands while panting. 

"What kind of necklace are you..." I look at my necklace and then look up only to see some...houses? I turn around expecting to see the black abyss I came from, but there's nothing. I'm standing at the edge of a cliff and in front of me are only those buildings. So I start to walk the path ahead of me towards the houses. They look kinda strange, they are grey, black and white and are just cubes with doors and windows, they look so...clean. As if they weren't made of material, they're too unnatural. I can't describe it. They don't have any details to describe them. I follow the path through this town, I guess, and I end up at a staircase leading up to a kinda special building. It looks bigger and isn't just a cube. It looks like a castle? Still pretty undetailed but it looks different than the other buildings here. My necklace once again starts to move but I just keep holding it in my hands. I start to fly in the direction of the castle, I start to walk up the stairs. I'll just follow my necklace, right now it seems to know more than me. 

The gate to the castle is open, I look inside only to see that black nowhere again. However, now there's a door in the middle of the black nothing. I slowly enter it and walk towards the door. Once I arrive there the door opens and I go through it. I enter some kind of throne room. It's completely empty, there are only three things in this room. No windows, no other doors, and the door I went through disappeared too. I walk over to the only things in this room. There are two thrones, and between them stands a baby crib. I walk over to one of the thrones and see a word engraved in it. It's definitely a word, there are standing letters but...I can't read them. I mean, I should be able to read it but I can't. I walk over to the other throne, the same thing, can't read it. I look at the baby crib, it's empty, but there's also a name engraved. It's kinda hard to read, but otherwise like the two thrones I can read this one.

"L-Lucy...Lucy huh? Argh!!" Once again, a bright light appears in front of my face. "What is happening???"

"You're remembering."

I look at the light kinda confused, not understanding it at all. "Remembering?"

"Yes, these are memories out of your subconscious. You're experiencing something that makes you remember, it brings up your memories. Not all, of course, that's why so many things look strange here, as the buildings outside of this room here. You don't remember then exactly anymore, not even in your subconscious."

I look around, then shake my head and look back at the light. "I don't get it, who are you?"

"Simply, a perception in your head. Trying to guide you."

"Guide me? Where, what does this mean??"

I notice that his light starts to flicker and gets weaker. "Wha- are you alright?"

"Oh, it looks like we don't have enough time. Look, you know what to do. You know exactly what to do, don't be scared to take that step. You have to do it, find out who you are. You need to restore the balance."

"W-What are you talking about, I don't kn-"

"Runa. You can't lie to yourself. I'm a part of you. I know that you're scared, but otherwise, you will never find out who you are. And if you don't...it could cost you everything."

He's disappearing more and more along with the room around us. I look around shocked and then at him.

"W-Wait please, I still have so many questions, please!!!"

"Don't worry Runa...I trust you, I know that you will do the right thing. This was the last time we met in your dreams. We'll see again, not in your dreams...but maybe in real."

The room around us disappeared completely, I'm only standing on the last piece of colored ground as his light gets weaker and weaker. "No, NO WAIT PLE-"

Just when he disappeared completely and the last bit of the ground disappeared I start to fall. 

Fall into the endless nothing.


	29. Accept

"WAIT!!!" 

I scream while sitting up in my bed. I'm panting, I'm completely sweaty and my whole body shakes. I hear steps running over to me and then I see Law's face looking at me confused.

"What happened?? Are you alright, does something hurt??"

I look at him, still panting and somehow trying to calm down. I place a hand on my forehead and close my eyes. I take a deep breath and then answer him. "Y-Yeah it was...a strange...dream. I'm fine don't worry..."

I look at the blanket lying in front of me for a moment and then look back at him, kinda resigned. "C-Can I...tell you about my dream..?"

He looks at me for a moment, then sits down on the edge of my bed and nods. "Tell me."

I take a deep breath and then tell him exactly what happened. He just listens quietly while I fridge around with my blanket, once I finished I just stare at my hands and we are silent. 

"You know, I thought that this was just a huge coincidence, but it looks like there's more to this. The question is, it looks like you know exactly what to do now. So Runa, what do you want to do?"

I just stare at my hands, I rotate my head to my side and look out of my window into the dark sky. "I...I feel like...I have to go..." I look back at him while clenching my hands into my blanket. "To your world. For me...there are just too many ambiguities as if I could stay here and continue to live my normal life. The person who seems to hold a grudge against me, what is up with my necklace, the place I saw in my dream...I want to find out about those things, and I feel like I'll find my answers in your world."

Law looks at me for a short moment. "Look Runa-ya, my world is dangerous, you know that. You wouldn't survive a single day there and now think about it. If you die there what is with your family here? They would never find out."

"I know that it's selfish! To just take such a risk andw leave behind people who worry about me. But that voice also said if I don't take that step, it could cost me everything. And they are...everything I have. I won't risk losing them because I'm scared."

I look at him with a serious and determined expression. He looks at me for a moment, he then sighs and ruffles through his hair. "Fine. But you'll come with me. Don't think that I'll let you run around in my world, especially since that guy is after you."

I look at him with a smile and then just hug him. "Thank you, Law..." I sigh relieved and then noticed that he's kinda a little bit overwhelmed. I let go of him again and then just look at him smiling.

"This will be exhausting...and how do you plan on telling your family?"

The smile disappears from my face. "I...I gotta lie to them again. I can't tell them I'll go with you to another world...I will tell them that there's something in your family you gotta clarify and that I will help you."

"Alright, then we have that solved. Another problem, we don't have a way back."

I look to my side and grab the stone from my nightstand. "You know there's something I thought about...do you know something about a blood oath?"

He looks at me with a raised eyebrow and nods. "Yeah, that's along with drinking sake pretty common under pirates."

"Right now...we saw this stone light up in three different colors. White, red, and blue. White was the first time you and I used our stones. Red was the one time you tried to use my stone. And blue was that guy who used his stone again. So that means those stones aren't just one-way tickets to the other world. However, when you used my stone it didn't work. Now what I thought was..."

"One stone is bounded with a blood oath to their first user. So that means I can't activate yours, only you can."

I look at him and nod. "Yes, that's what I thought off. It could make sense...I think. Even though it's just a stone and you don't really make a blood oath with a stone." I stand up and walk over to the middle of my room. "Maybe it'll even start to work without some blood." I place the stone on my flat hand and look at it for a moment. "Ehm...Portal to another world, open!" Nothing happens. "Ehm...Portal!!" Again nothing. Law looks at me with a raised eyebrow. "Don't look at me like that!!" I close my eyes, concentrate on the stone. I think about the portal which should appear and mumble. "Activate the portal."

I open my eyes again and then see a blue light coming out of the stone in my hand. I look at it with big eyes and then see a portal appearing right in front of me. It's a swirl of all the colors, lighting up the whole room. I look at it with widen eyes, Law stands up and walks over to me. "I-I can't believe it...it worked...!"

A little smile appears on his face and I look at him, also smiling. "If you want to, you can already go back and take care of everything. Reunite with your crew, I'll take care of the last things here and then follow you."

He looks at me. "Are you sure that it's alright?"

"Yeah, pretty sure they will be sad they couldn't say goodbye, but it would just make it more complicated if you are there. If they start to ask you something. Now go. I know that you miss them."

He looks at me for a moment and then walks over to the portal, he stands in front of it and looks back at me. "Alright, see you later Runa. Tell your friends thank you for me, for having me."

I nod and just look at him entering the portal. 

And he's gone. 

Once again I concentrate on the stone and mumble. "Deactivate the portal." 

The portal disappears and the room turns dark again.

And now it's only me, myself and I.

I walk back to my bed, only to fall beside it on my knees. I lay with my hand and arms on the edge of the bed. 

And then I can't stop myself, endless tears are forming and rolling down my cheeks only to fall on my bed. 

I still don't understand a single thing, I don't know why all of this is happening to me, or why I should be connected to a fictional world at all.

I'm just so endlessly...

Scared.


	30. Goodbye

Eventually, I fell asleep while crying everything out. The sun shines through my window into my room, I slowly open my eyes. I sit up and look over to the couch. Right, he left. Today I'll have to tell them.

I stand up, walk over to my closet, and change into something else. I open my door and walk out of it on the way down. I can already hear their voices from the kitchen, sounds like Zane is also there. I stop in front of the door to the kitchen and take a deep breath before laying a hand on the handle and opening the door. Everybody looks to me and they greet me with a good morning.

I lift my hand and weave them. "Good morning guys..."

The girls continue to prepare breakfast, but Zane seemed to already notice that something is off.

"Runa are you alright? You seem kinda...distant."

My three friends now look at me kinda worried. "Right...and where is Leo? Is he still sleeping?" asks Fiona.

I look down on the ground while rubbing over my neck. "Sorry guys...Leo already left..."

"WHAT?!?!" gasp my three friends and look at me shocked. "He can't just leave without saying a thing!!!"

"There's an emergency at his place, he had to leave as soon as possible. He told me to thank you three for having him."

They look at each other kinda sad while I just look to the side with a strange feeling. Zane also noticed that and puts the cup down he was holding a moment ago. "There's more that is bugging you, right?"

The girls look again back at me while I'm trying to find some words to tell them.

"Guys I'll...leave tomorrow."

I see three jaws dropping and eyes wide, Zane looks at me with a smile, even though it still looks kinda sad. My friends run over to me and look at me not believing what I just said.

"YOU'RE KIDDING RIGHT???" say all three of them together. I shake my head and just look at the ground.

"I'll follow Leo and help him. You know..with the emergency. It's my own decision to help him, I would do the same for you guys. I don't know how long I'll be gone...you three can, of course, stay in the house...but I have to go."

They all look at me sadly and already want to talk some sense into me when Zane stands up and walks over to me. He puts a hand on my head and looks at me with a smile.

"You're sure?" I nod and he strokes over my head. "Then go. We won't hold you back, do what you think is right. This won't be a goodbye forever, we'll see each other again."

He gives me a kiss on the forehead and I just hug him tight. "Thank you...uncle." He kinda flinches surprised but then just hugs me back. "My little girl got so big..."

We let go of each other and I look over to my friends, they all look at me crying and sobbing. They start to hug me and I just hug them back, holding back my tears.

"We're just..going to miss you so bad Runa.."

"I'll miss you guys too..."

We keep hugging for some time, some tears are shared.

And we spent the rest of the day together. We went to the city, ate in a restaurant, went to an amusement park together and did much more. They wanted to spend our last day together, even though I told them it sounds like I'm going to die. They kept saying it. 

It's already midnight, my friends really used their whole energy on today, now they're all sleeping peacefully on the couch in our living room. Zane and I are standing outside at his car. He opens the door and gets inside, he lets the window down and looks at me smiling. 

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow." He gives me a kiss on the forehead and smiles at me. "I'm so proud of you, and I can tell he's just as proud of his little angle as I am."

I look at him with a smile and blush a little bit. He starts to drive off our driveway and I'll just keep waving him until his car drives around the next corner and out of my sight. I walk back inside and close the door behind me, as quietly as possible. I start to walk the stairs up to my room and look around it for a moment. I take a deep breath and walk to my closet, I take out a bag and put some clothes into it. Not many, just some comfy clothes. After all, they should think I really went to move out. I close the bag and put it on. I look around my room and walk over to my desk, I take out my phone and look at it for a moment. I open a drawer of my desk and look at my phone, I take the Sim-Card out and turn my phone off. I lay the card in my drawer and put my phone into my pocket. I close the drawer, grab my keys and the stone of my nightstand, and then just walk over to my door, I look back in my room and then walk out while closing the door. I walk down the stairs and arrive in the living room only to see my friends sleeping peacefully on the couch. I take a piece of paper from my pocket and write something on it. I place the note on the couch beside them and look one more time at them before walking to the front door and leaving the house. I stop in the driveway and look back at the house.

"I'm sorry. I won't be able to leave you while looking at your tears. And especially not...since I don't know when we'll see each other again. Remember us having fun...not with tears."

I smile slightly and then walk out of the driveway. I walk through some streets over to my university. Since it's the middle of the night it's closed, but that doesn't matter anyway. I can forget about my study anyway. No, my goal is the alley Law brought me when we first met and he hid my necklace at. 

Once I arrive there I take out my stone and look at it for a moment. 

That's it, now's the only chance to withdraw.

I look back out of the alley on the street only to see some street lights and cars passing by. I take a deep breath and look back at the stone. I clench my fist around it and press it to my heart. I take a deep breath and think about a portal leading to Law.

"Activate the portal."

Once I said those words the portal opens in front of me and lights up the whole street. I walk towards it and take a deep breath.

"A new world awaits me...time to find some answers to my questions. A new adventure."

Those are my last words before I enter the portal with a smile on my lips.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The end

To be continued...


End file.
